The Severus Snape Advent Calendar, Take 5
by HappyAuriga
Summary: Count down to Christmas with me again!
1. 1

1

Severus Snape, potions instructor at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry, was not a morning person. Nevertheless he was among the first to enter the Great Hall for breakfast on that Thursday when our story begins. Little did those few students who had made it there before him know that he had given a huge yawn in the Entrance Hall before entering and that he had spent all the way up from his dungeon quarters cursing Albus Dumbledore under his breath for putting him on breakfast duty.

Ever since Snape had started teaching at Hogwarts had he been trying to convince the old wizard that he, Snape, didn't mind supervising the corridors until after midnight if only he didn't have to be at the Great Hall at the crack of dawn.

He was already halfway up the aisle between the Hufflepuff and the Ravenclaw tables before his still sleepy brain registered the change in the hall:

There, at the end of the aisle, right in front of the centre of the head table stood a Christmas tree. It was higher than Snape was tall and decorated in the house colours of all 4 houses. There were ball ornaments in green, red, blue and yellow and delicate crystal snowflakes which sparkled with stones similar to those that were used to count house points. (Snape looked up at the hour glasses and was relieved to find that the counting stones were still there.) The tips of the branches were decorated with white candles which had tiny Hogwarts crests on them.

Snape made a face but since the tree didn't seem dangerous at all, he continued up to his seat and reached for coffee first. Only after he had nearly emptied his second cup, which was actually quite soon because Snape made a habit of downing at least three before the bulk of the student body arrived for breakfast, did Snape realise that there were also small parcels on the tree. It seemed that they were numbered for from his seat he could spot parcels with the numbers 7, 13, 17 and 21.

He had just caught on what this must be when the voice of one of his least favourite students was heard: "Ooooooh, an advent calendar!"

Snape was in full teacher mode immediately. "Thank you for stating the obvious, Miss Granger," he snarled from his half-hidden position behind the tree. "Now kindly sit down and let the rest of us enjoy our meal in peace."

"Yes, Sir," the girl chimed in a much too merry tone.

Snape had just gotten himself some food – he only did that after his second cup when he was on duty – when the headmaster arrived.

"Severus, it's beautiful!" cried the old wizard for the whole hall to hear. "What a splendid idea!"

Snape shook his head. "If you're talking about the tree, headmaster," he said solemnly, "I have nothing to do with it. It was already here when I arrived."

"And here I thought you had gotten into the spirit over those last few years." Dumbledore sounded a little disappointed. "But if it wasn't you, who put it here?"

Snape admitted that he had no idea and the other heads of houses who were all present by then – how did Sprout manage to look that merry that early in the morning? – agreed that they had nothing to do with the advent calendar tree.

"We cannot open any of those parcels when we don't know who it is from. It may be dangerous!" McGonagall pointed out. Everybody agreed. "What if it is from You-Know-Who?"

"I think," Hagrid joined the conversation, "we should be askin' them house elves. They know a lot."

Dumbledore agreed and told the head table that he wished to speak with the house elf in charge immediately.

The chief Hogwarts house elf was old but he still held himself with pride. His pillowcase with the Hogwarts crest on it was freshly laundered and ironed and the white fluff of hair coming out of the elf's ears looked so tufty it must have been recently washed.

"What may Pinky do for the headmaster?" the elf asked with a dignified bow.

"Pinky," the headmaster replied solemnly, "I wish to know who put this tree into the Great Hall. The house elves work outside of the kitchens mostly by night. Has any of you seen who brought the tree?"

"Oh, we not only saw but we helped!" the elf stated proudly. "We moved the tables just a little to give the tree more room. And we decorated it."

"So it's from the elves?" Dumbledore asked in disbelief.

"Oh no!" cried the little elf. "The castle itself requested we put it up. It added the magic when the elves were done with the decorations."

"Hogwarts?" breathed McGonagall. "Hogwarts has given us a tree?"

"The castle says," the elf confirmed, "that she saw how happy its witches and wizards were with the advent calendars of the last years that he decided to make one himself this year when she saw that nobody had brought one in this year."

"You are giving me a headache," muttered Sprout. "He or she?"

The elf grabbed an empty plate and smacked himself on the head with it before anybody could do something. Dumbeldore was surprisingly quick for his age though and took the plate from him before the elf could hit himself for a second time.

"Stop it, you did nothing wrong," the headmaster ordered. "Just answer the question."

The elf nodded eagerly and explained. "The castle is a sentient being. He was brought to life by the founders' magic but every witch and wizard who ever did magic within these halls added to her. The castle is all and nothing. She is male and he is female, he is both and she is neither."

The headmaster thanked Pinky and sent him back to what he had been doing before he turned to the heads of houses. "It seems the castle itself has treated us to an advent calendar this year. Severus, since you started the tradition, why don't you open the first parcel?"

Snape hated being the centre of attention that early in the morning but then there were only 24 parcels on the tree and hundreds of people in the castle. This was probably the only chance he got of opening a window. He got up, walked around the head table and searched for the parcel labelled "1".

It was a particularly big one, wrapped in Slytherin green with a silver number on it. Snape carried it back to his seat and opened it while the teachers and students watched with baited breath.

In the box was a silver tray which expanded upon being taken out of its confinement, and it held hundreds of chocolate balls! On top of the pile lay a small piece of parchment. "One for each!" it said.

"It seems that the first window of our calendar holds a treat for each and every one of us!" cried Dumbledore.

The students cheered.

Snape spent the next half hour handing out sweets which his coworkers found extremely amusing and never stopped pointing out under their breath.

Most students were not very eager to have sweets that were handed out by their potions master for breakfast but that changed when Weasley of Gryffindor cried "Gold! There is gold in the chocolate!" After his outburst everybody who hadn't yet done so attacked their chocolate ball. And really, some had small golden coins in them. Snape himself discovered a knut-sized coin labelled "23".

It was Flitwick, who had gotten "2", who caught on first. "It seems, we were just informed who is to open the other windows" the head of Ravenclaw cried. Those who had found a coin in their chocolate ball cheered.

Snape was content. It seemed that this had not been his only window.


	2. 2

2

On the second of December, Severus Snape was not on breakfast duty. Nevertheless he entered the Great Hall quite early. He wouldn't want to miss the opening of the next window, would he, and Flitwick was known to be an early bird.

It seemed that Snape was not the only one who wanted to see the window being opened. In spite of the early hour, the whole student body and most of the teachers were already present. In fact, the only one missing was Flitwick.

"Where is our calendar boy?" Snape asked as he sat beside McGonagall.

The witch huffed. "Probably enjoying the fact that thousand people are waiting for him," she growled.

"Really," Dumbledore chimed in from Snape's other side. "This is not the day for him to sleep in. I'm considering sending a house elf for him."

"You will do no such thing!" admonished McGonagall. Under her breath she muttered, "that's just what we need, you waking the teachers whenever you feel like it."

"Filius was on duty late yesterday evening," Sprout reminded them. "He told me during dinner."

"See," McGonagall pointed out, "he has good reason to be a little late. And breakfast has barely begun."

"That's true," agreed Snape while he reached for his second cup of coffee.

Flitwick turned up when Snape had just started his fourth cup and most of the students were finished but still with enough time to get a leisurely meal before lessons started.

"Merlin's beard," the small wizard cried as he sat down. "What is everybody waiting for?"

He had the decency to blush when McGonagall enlightened him and rushed to the tree, apologising to the waiting witches and wizards while he searched for his parcel.

It was a very small and wrapped in Gryffindor colours.

"It must be a personal present, only for you," Sprout guessed. "I don't think anything big enough to share with the whole school will fit in there."

Snape rolled his eyes. With the proper amount of magic a whole castle would fit into that box!

Flitwick pointed out the very thing, though in politer words than Snape would have used, to Sprout while he opened the box.

Silver sparks shot up into the air and the students ooohed excitedly. Flitwick watched, clearly in awe.

The sparks formed a small whirlwind and it rushed through the hall, leaving it decorated in sparkly silver stars in its wake.

"It's beautiful!" cried Lavender Brown of Gryffindor and girls throughout the hall agreed.

"It's not bad," the clear voice of Draco Malfoy announced, "but nothing like what Father does with our manor."

"What does he do?" Harry Potter asked from the Gryffindor table. "Put up white ferrets?"

"Now, now, Harry," Dumbledore admonished, "ferrets are not your typical Christmas decorations. I'm sure Mr Malfoy does something very elegant and tasteful, doesn't he, Mr Malfoy?"

Snape thought that the headmaster would have made an excellent Slytherin for with his simple question he had stopped Malfoy from using his wand to shut Potter up.

"Of course," the boy told the old wizard, well aware that the whole hall was listening, "he uses holly and tinsel and tiny ornaments made of crystal glass. Those have been in the family for generations and the portrait of my ancestor Dorado Malfoy insists that they were custom made for him by Austrian mountain gnomes who enclosed the twinkling of real stars in them. Of course Potter wouldn't know anything about elegant Christmas decorations since he grew up in a pigsty."

"You cannot enclose the twinkling of stars in anything. The twinkling of stars belongs to the stars and you cannot steal it," Granger cried before Potter was able to retaliate. "You are a liar, Malfoy!"

"Why would I exert myself coming up with lies for the likes of you," Malfoy sneered.

Snape was getting ready to interfere but Flitwick beat him to it.

"Actually," the tiny wizard squealed, "it is possible, Miss Granger. It would take an unbelievable amount of power but it certainly is possible. I can show you a spell which would do just that, although at a much smaller scale."

Several students cried that they would love to learn such a spell and even Snape had to admit that he was intrigued.

"Splendid!" cried the head of Ravenclaw. "Why don't those of you who want to learn the spell stay behind while the others go and prepare for their lessons? I'm afraid though, that you have to be at least in fifth year to learn it. Otherwise you won't yet know the basics used. I promise to those who are too young though to teach them the spell when they are old enough if they remind me to do so."

"Do you mind if I stay behind and help proctor the group?" Snape asked. "There are quite many staying behind."

Flitwick had the audacity to wink at him. "It would be very welcome, Severus," he said. "It's always good when there's somebody present who can demonstrate that it is possible to learn a new spell in quite short time. You don't know that spell, do you?"

Snape had to admit that he didn't, as did Sprout, Vector and Burbage who had all opted to stay behind and learn.

There was a group of almost fifty students who wanted to learn Flitwick's twinkle catching charm. The tiny Charms teacher stood on an empty platter which he spelled to hover high enough that everybody could see him well.

"First you have to conjure something nice and transparent where you want to encase the twinkle. And of course you need a twinkling object. To keep it simple, I suggest you conjure something made of glass as a container and an icicle to give you the twinkle."

Everybody did as they were told and then Flitwick spent the next half hour explaining the required wand movement and incantation. He hovered through the hall on his platter while everybody practiced.

Snape was, indeed, the first to master the spell which gave him an immense feeling of satisfaction. He was closely followed by Granger, Potter, Malfoy and a group of Ravenclaw seventh years. By the time the teachers had to send the students off to their first lessons not everybody had mastered the spell but Flitwick offered to supervise some practice after dinner.

Snape carried his now twinkling glass ball down to the dungeons and put it on his desk as a reminder for the students who was the fastest learner at Hogwarts. Since the first class was only due in 10 minutes, the potions master practiced a little more and by the time the students entered the classroom, he had a nice collection of glass ornaments twinkling with the power of crystals surrounded by candles.


	3. 3

3

Again, Snape had risen early in order not to miss the opening of the advent calendar window. And he was not the only one. The Great Hall was packed with students and teachers at a time when a half dozen of early birds would have been normal.

Snape was halfway through his third cup of coffee and still nobody had come forward to open the parcel labelled "3". "Do they need to delay in such a way?" he complained to McGonagall who was looking quite impatient herself.

"You are right," the witch agreed. "There's no need to have us all on tenterhooks like this."

"Are all your Slytherins here?" Dumbledore asked Snape to which the potions master answered in the affirmative. Similar questions to the other heads revealed that all students were present. "Very well then," sighed Dumbledore and got up from his seat.

"Good morning," he greeted the students and staff. "Now that we have all been fed, I'm sure every one of you wants to know what today's advent calendar parcel will bring. I therefore ask the person who got the coin labelled '3' to step forward and reveal to us what the castle has in store for us."

First there was silence but after a couple of heartbeats a timid little first year girl got up from the Hufflepuff table and approached the tree. She showed her coin and started to look for her treat.

"It's up there, near the top!" cried one of Hufflepuff's seventh years. "I can see it, Ebony!"

Little Ebony stretched as far as she could but she was too small.

Dumbledore smiled benignly and turned to Snape. "Severus, if you please. I'm too old for that."

The potions master stifled a sigh and got up from his seat. "Just a moment, Miss Jones," he drawled while he walked around the head table. Once he had joined the little girl in front of the tree he seized her around her waist and lifted her high enough to get the parcel.

"Thank you!" squealed the little witch once she had her prize in her hand. She turned around quickly and pecked Snape on his cheek, only to drop her box and blush in mortification.

"A corporeal proof of thanks was not necessary," Snape said sternly and swept back to his seat. What had the world come to if little Hufflepuffs walked around kissing their potions master!

"Ah, the Christmas spirit!" cried Dumbledore and clapped his hands. "That's a form of magic we can never hope to achieve on our own!"

"Yes, Severus," teased McGonagall, "that was a truly magical moment! Do tell us how you felt!"

Snape harrumphed and reached for another cup of coffee.

Meanwhile Miss Jones had recovered and picked up the calendar box. She put it on the Hufflepuff table and opened it.

Students craned their necks to see, especially after the little girl squealed with delight.

"What is it?" asked one of her housemates.

"I don't know but it's big!" cried Ebony. "Somebody better help me!"

It took five seventh year boys to lift Ebony's present out of the box. It was a portrait.

"It's nice to see you, my children!" said the kindly smiling witch in the picture. She was a little plump and her long blonde hair was gathered in a thick braid which hung over her left shoulder. The dress she wore was extremely old-fashioned.

"Madame Hufflepuff!" cried Dumbledore. "Is that you?"

"It is, indeed, me," announced the witch. "My portrait was hidden away in a storeroom for a very long time. I'm so glad to finally be free to converse with the students of our school!" She smiled at the students again.

"We have a talking portrait of our founder!" cheered Hufflepuff house. The other houses clapped politely. Snape hoped that Salazar Slytherin himself was not going to turn up from one of the other boxes. He had not a reputation of being nice.

"Please, Professor Sprout," asked one of the seventh years, "may we put the portrait above the fireplace in our common room?"

"If the headmaster has nothing against it," Sprout looked at Dumbledore expectantly.

The old wizard struck his beard. "It would be nice to have a founder to confer with but I don't think the castle meant the portrait to go into the headmaster's office. The Hufflepuff common room seems like a fitting place."

The Hufflepuffs cheered. The house got up as one. Ebony lead the way, two seventh years carried the portrait behind her and the rest followed, singing the school song at the top of their voices.

"Pomona," said Dumbledore, "I think you'd better supervise this!" but the witch was already out of her seat. The headmaster smiled, satisfied with his staff's good sense of what was required.

"I hope there is a portrait of Godric Gryffindor somewhere in there!" McGonagall sighed, eying the tree longingly. Flitwick agreed that he was hoping for a picture of his house's founder, too. They both looked at Snape expectantly but he was too much of a Slytherin to share his thoughts on the subject. Muttering about needing to prepare his next lesson he got up and retreated to the dungeons.


	4. 4

4

Although he was early again, Snape was barely in time to watch Ronald Weasley run up to the tree and snatch a box from one of the lower branches.

"You are not going to open that now, before everybody is here, are you?" cried Pansy Parkinson from the Slytherin table.

"Of course he is," drawled Draco Malfoy in his clear voice. "You would, too, if this was your only hope to get your hands on something of value."

"Come on, Draco," sauntered the girl, and Snape began to suspect that he was listening to a well-rehearsed conversation. "Nobody is so penniless that they have to rip open a silly Christmas toy box in a hurry."

"You forget that it's Weasley we are talking about." It was truly amazing how Malfoy managed to be heard in the last corner of the Great Hall without appearing to shout. Snape made a mental note to congratulate Lucius on his son's vocal trainer when he next saw him. Ah, there was nothing like an upper scale magical education and Draco Malfoy was a splendid example on how all those private lessons paid off. The potions master sat down and got himself some coffee while he watched the show with interest.

"Shut up, you despicable lout," Hermione Granger took Weasley's side but Malfoy was prepared for that.

"Sending in the girl again, Weasley?" he drawled. "I'm not surprised. Everybody knows that you are not intelligent enough for a battle of wits and she has bigger balls than you anyway."

Weasley was brick red and looked ready to burst by this point.

"Malfoy!" spat Harry Potter and the blond smiled beatifically.

"I told you, Pansy," he pointed out merrily, "that Potter would not step in for his sidekick but for the mudblood. He has it hot for her, mark my words. I shudder to think what he does with her while Weasley is trying to catch up on their homework."

"Uh, Draco," Pansy cried, and Snape had to admit that it was a good thing she did. She wasn't as skilled as Malfoy when it came to filling the whole room with her voice. "I didn't need that image in my head." She made a retching noise. "But you are right, Weasley is definitely the least intelligent of the three."

"Poor Weasley," Blaise Zabini joined the conversation. "No money, no looks, no brains. Not like Potter or Granger."

"Money and brains I can see," agreed Malfoy, "but who of the two do you think has looks?" He looked puzzled. A moment later he yelped. Potter had shot a stinging hex at the blond.

Snape reached for his wand to intervene but was distracted by McGonagall who had just entered the Great Hall in time to witness him hexing Malfoy and was descending upon Potter like an avenging angel. Malfoy, being a true Slytherin, used Snape's moment of hesitation to retaliate with a tarantallegra jinx. The golden trio started a ridiculous tap dancing routine.

Snape had to hide a smirk when McGonagall made a beeline for the Slytherin table without bothering to end the spell on the Gryffindor trio.

"Draco Malfoy," the witch cried, "how dare you curse a student while I'm telling them off! Never have I been treated with such an amount of disrespect!"

Malfoy didn't blink an eye. "Professor," he replied innocently, "I was just watching out for you! You know how Potter gets when he's upset. I wouldn't have been surprised had he cursed you when you stepped between us. Since you came to my rescue, I felt I simply had to return the favour."

Snape admired the boy's composure. Not a single muscle in the blonde's face twitched while he watched Potter and Weasley twirling Granger to and fro between them. The girl looked green in the face.

"Be that as it may," huffed McGonagall, "you will never ever shoot a curse past me and risk hitting me if you wish to finish your education at this school, Mr Malfoy!"

"Yes, Professor," Malfoy replied meekly while Potter decided to outdo Weasley by lifting Granger above his head.

Granger shrieked and started to try and hit Potter. "If you use this as an excuse to look under my skirt, Harry Potter, you better think twice!" the girl raged. Snape smirked. "What do you think he'll see with your robe flapping around wildly, Miss Granger?" he asked in the same carrying voice Malfoy had used so masterfully. "Your virtue is quite safe."

Granger stopped hitting Potter which made the by then present Slytherins – nearly all the house – glare at Snape but their expressions changed to admiration when McGonagall had a go at Snape, again without ending Draco's spell.

"You," the enraged witch pointed her wand at Snape who raised his hands to show that he was not armed, "it's your duty to maintain peace in the Great Hall and here you are, sipping coffee while students curse each other! What kind of teacher are you!"

"Since it was you, Professor," Snape smirked, "who is in charge of schedules I assume that you know that I am not on duty this morning. I'm merely here for the food." He bit into a slice of unbuttered toast to make a point. "Maintaining peace is your job today. And if I were you, I'd stop Weasley before he suffers a heart attack. He's looking quite unhealthy." Weasley's face was, unsurprisingly, a vivid red.

McGonagall turned around and after a quick word of apology stopped the jinx. All three Gryffindors sank down on their seats with sighs of relief. "Do you need the hospital wing?" their head of house asked, clearly concerned.

"It takes more than one of Malfoy's children's spells to send us up to the infirmary," Potter growled but the other two looked like they wouldn't say no to a little rest in a hospital bed.

"Very well," said McGonagall and proceeded to her place where she started to berate Snape for not ending the fight before it had started.

"Excuse me," the potions master defended himself. "I am not a seer. How was I to know what was going to happen?"

They were still bickering when Dumbledore arrived.

"Good morning!" the old wizard greeted the students and teachers. "Did I miss the opening of the calendar?"

Only then did Weasley remember that it was his turn to open a box. He had to dive under the Gryffindor table to retrieve it from where it had been kicked during his tap-dance.

"Ah, Mr Weasley! Congratulations!" cried the headmaster.

Weasley blushed – which was quite an achievement seeing that he was still brick red after the dance – and smiled at the old man.

"Open it!" cried Terry Boot from Ravenclaw. Several students from all houses seconded the request and Snape had to admit that he was curious himself.

Weasley removed the bow and paper carefully like somebody used to reusing such things. When he opened the box, the assembled students sighed. A flock of colourful birds had risen from its confinement and was now flying in circles around the great hall.

"They are beautiful, Ron!" cried Lavender Brown and Snape thought that he didn't need to be a seer to see a teenage romance in the near future. The girl sounded smitten with the redhead.

Some students showed they agreed by clapping their hands. Others followed their lead.

The birds didn't like the noise at all.

Students screamed when the frightened birds released droppings over their breakfast.

"That's disgusting, Weasley!" cried Malfoy and this time his voice didn't sound well-educated at all.

The screams and outcries of disgust frightened the birds further and some even attacked the students.

McGonagall cast a protective spell over the head table. So far the birds had played havoc at the students' end of the hall but Snape agreed, they didn't need bird droppings on the teachers' breakfast.

Dumbledore stood and after a small spell to enhance his voice ordered the students to calm down. It took a minute or two but when calm was restored, the birds retreated to the rafters. A quick spell from the old wizard and all the bird droppings disappeared. Nobody reached for food though. The house elves caught on quickly. The bowls and trays were removed and within the blink of an eye replaced by fresh ones.

At last everybody sat down and started their meal. Snape reached for a platter of eggs but withdrew his hands when he heard an angry twitter from above.

"Could somebody help me?" Granger asked timidly.

The students and teachers craned their necks to see better.

Ginny Weasley got up from her seat and started working on the other girl's hair. Snape had to hide a smirk. One of the attacking birds had gotten caught in it!

"I knew it was a bird's nest!" crowed Malfoy from the Slytherin table.

"Shut up!" cried Potter. He had his wand out in an instant.

The headmaster had had enough by this point. "I suggest you all go and prepare for your first lesson before this gets out of hand again. We do not want to upset our befeathered guests again." He looked up into the rafters.

The students agreed because two minutes later, the only ones left were the golden trio and Ginny Weasley who was still trying to free the bird from Granger's hair. A minute later, the problem was solved and the teachers got to finally eat in peace.


	5. 5

5

The next morning found Snape in a particularly foul mood due to the headmasters orders to all teachers to be in the Great Hall a half hour before food was served. He joined his colleagues, all of whom looked sleepy and even Flitwick – who was normally viewed as the sunshine of the staff – looked a bit grumpy.

"What!" Snape snapped at Dumbledore when he stepped to the group five minutes after Vector had arrived at a jog. The others looked gratefully that the potions master for taking over the task of making their displeasure known. "Why did you ask us here at this ungodly hour and why is there no coffee?"

Dumbledore smiled in that unnerving, benign way that was apt to drive Snape up the walls. "To discuss how we are going to prevent a repetition of yesterday's catastrophy, of course," the old wizard pointed out. "Even with the fiercest belief in the good in our students, I'm well aware that Gryffindor probably spent half the night plotting how to get revenge on Malfoy."

"And we couldn't discuss that yesterday evening while you were giving out orders to be here at this time because…?" McGonagall glared at their superior.

"I needed time to think." Dumbledore pointed out.

"You could have thought while we taught our lessons," piped Flitwick. "You had all day!"

Snape agreed and added "I still don't know why we have to be here and there is no coffee!"

The headmaster made a disapproving noise. "You don't expect me to ask the house elves to get up even earlier after they spent several hours cleaning the Great Hall of bird dropping! Hagrid, let me thank you for getting rid of the birds!"

The half-giant blushed. "I didn't do nothing!" he pointed out modestly.

"Since the birds are gone," Sprout said gently, "you must have!"

"All I did was open a window," Hagrid admitted. "A first year could have done it."

"Aren't they going to freeze to death?" Vector asked, concerned. "They were so beautiful!"

"Nah," Hagrid made a dismissive gesture. "I put up a little birdhouse next to my hut and laid out a trail of bird seeds. When I came up here this morning, I heard them chirp inside."

"That's good then," Vector smiled happily. "I really liked them."

"I can show you how to put up a feeder in front of your window," Hagrid offered. "You could watch them while you correct homework."

"That's a splendid idea!" cried Vector.

"Would you show me, too?" Trelawney joined the conversation. "The interpretation of the flight of birds is a very important branch of divination!"

Hagrid promised to instruct her on how to put up a bird feeder, too, although he refused to climb up to her classroom. Trelawney giggled and informed him that he was too big for her trapdoor anyway and Hagrid blushed again.

Snape rolled his eyes. "Stop talking about food when we can't even have a simple cup of coffee."

"We really ought to stop bickering about food," Flitwick pointed out. "We should discuss how to stop the students from fighting in front of the advent calendar every day."

McGonagall snorted. "What is there to discuss. We put a line around the calendar which can only be crossed when a teacher allows it. That way they can't take a box unsupervised."

"I see trouble ahead! The one who is fond of dark brews will be offended and the innocent will suffer for it!" Trelawney announced in a hushed voice.

"They weren't unsupervised yesterday," Snape pointed out ignoring Trelawney.

Two people talked at once then.

"You didn't report that Tom has taken up potioneering, Severus," Dumbledore cried.

"You call sitting here, gulping down coffee and letting them quarrel supervision, Severus?" snapped McGonagall.

"You want me to supervise? You want me to supervise?" Snape lost his patience and shouted at McGonagall. "I'll give you supervision!" He drew his wand and flicked it in the direction of the advent calendar. The tree glowed red for an instant. "And you!" he turned to Dumbledore. "Not everything that has the word dark or black in it is about the Dark Lord! It is I who loves dark brews! I was offended and I still want my morning coffee!"

The other teachers watched Snape's tantrum with interest. It wasn't the first one they witnessed, therefore they were rather amused than upset.

"Was that a stinging hex?" Sprout asked.

"Yes," snapped the potions master. "It took me all of two seconds to solve the problem. No need to be here early."

"I take it," Dumbledore asked almost shyly – he probably didn't want to trigger another tantrum – "that only you can lift it in order to allow the students to take their boxes?" He beamed at Snape. "Thank you for volunteering, Severus! That's very generous!"

The other teachers agreed and gave Snape a warm round of applaus.

"I didn't volunteer!" Snape cried.

"But you did!" Vector pointed out. "Nobody but you can allow a box to be taken! – Oh, look! Coffee!"

Indeed, the house elves had started to bring up breakfast and the first thing to appear on the head table was a big coffeepot right in front of Snape's usual seat.

The potions master made a beeline for his preferred beverage and sighed contentedly as soon as the first drop touched his lips.

A couple of minutes the first students arrived.

Cho Chang of Ravenclaw learned about the stinging charm when she tried to take her box down from the tree.

"Oww!" the girl wailed. Flitwick joined his charge in front of the tree immediately and showed his Ravenclaws, who were gathering around their hurt housemate how to treat the sting with a counter curse.

"Really Albus," he said when he returned to his seat, now that the Ravenclaws were happily practicing the healing charm on Miss Chang's hand. "You should have warned them!"

"I was planning to," cried the headmaster as he buttered another slice of toast. "But I thought I'd rather wait until everybody was here."

Snape snorted. "As if the one who was allowed to open the window would wait until everybody was assembled!"

Since the damage was already done, they waited for everybody to be there before the headmaster got up to his feet. The old wizard informed the students again how unacceptable yesterday's events had been. The Golden Trio hung their heads but Malfoy smirked, clearly not impressed by the headmaster's words.

"As a counter measure," Dumbledore continued, "Professor Snape put a protective spell on the tree."

"Protective?" cried Cho Chang. "Ha!"

"It's to protect the tree," Dumbledore pointed out with a benign smile. "From this day on, nobody can take anything from the tree without Professor Snape's permission."

Miss Chang looked at the potions master expectantly. The black clad wizard made a show of taking another bite of toast and wiping his hands before he reached for his wand and flicked it at the tree. There was a green light and he motioned the girl to go ahead.

The Ravenclaw approached the tree carefully and only after touching it with only a fingertip to try whether the curse had really been lifted, she took down the little parcel labelled "5". As soon as the girl had her prize, Snape flicked his wand again and the tree glowed red for a moment.

"Whoever has got the coin for yesterday will approach me at breakfast and ask for permission to take their box. Nobody will touch the tree unsupervised," the potions master snarled. "If I'm disobeyed, I will come up with something stronger than a stinging hex."

"I'm sure that Professor Snape would not do permanent damage," Dumbledore tried to reassure the students. Then he turned to Cho Chang and asked her to open the box in a merry tone.

The girl obliged.

Several of her housemates had to help her. Out of the box came an assortment of cushions and blankets in Ravenclaw colours.

"We can use those for our reading corner!" Cho cried excitedly. "They are beautiful! Thank you, Hogwarts!"

"Let me show you how to levitate multiple objects at once," suggested Flitwick. The Ravenclaws squealed with excitement at the prospect of another lesson.

A little later, the house of the ravens left the Great Hall, blankets and pillows hovering above them.

"Now that was a nice gift," Malfoy pointed out from the Slytherin table. "But you had to be rowdy about the whole thing, didn't you, Weasley."

"Typical Gryffindor!" Pansy Parkinson added.

Snape glared at the two. "Is it asked too much to want to have breakfast in peace for once?"

"Sorry, Professor," the two chorused, and then Snape had breakfast in peace.


	6. 6

6

The next morning Snape went to the Great Hall with a plan. If it was him who was in charge of the advent calendar then he was going to take charge and properly. No more trying to open a box before he had eaten! The students of Hogwarts School were not four year olds after all. They could very well wait for a half hour until everybody had had a bite and was his usual self!

His plans were destroyed the moment he entered the Great Hall. It was Minerva McGonagall herself who was standing beside the tree, tapping her foot impatiently.

"Where have you been?" the woman asked in an accusatory tone which suggested Snape had offended her on a very personal level.

"In bed, like normal people do at this time of the day," Snape snapped back. How dare she!

"Well," McGonagall demanded, "take off the spell. I want to get this over with before I have a grand audience."

"But Professor!" cried Lavender Brown from the Gryffindor table. "Everybody wants to know what's in the box!"

"It's my box, Miss Brown," McGonagall growled. "What is in it, is not your business."

"I beg to differ," Snape pointed out, more to spite McGonagall than to side with Brown. "So far the advent calendar always held a gift for the whole school or at least a whole house. I don't think this box holds anything that is intended for you alone."

"You are the head of Gryffindor," Brown cried excitedly. "There may be a present for Gryffindor house in that box. Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw got presents for their common room."

"I hear Founder Hufflepuff is a delightful conversationalist," Snape added. "Do you really want to unwrap a portrait of Godric Gryffindor without his whole house being present to greet him?"

"Professor!" Brown whined.

McGonagall admitted defeat and followed Snape to their seats at the head table. They had coffee (Snape, lots of it) and tea (McGonagall, one cup) and a full cooked breakfast while they watched the students arrive in groups of threes and fours.

At last, when Neville Longbottom, Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan sat down at the Gryffindor table, McGonagall pushed her plate back. "They are all here now, Severus. Now lift that spell!"

"I never took you for that impatient," Snape pointed out and took another sip of coffee. When he put down the mug he obliged though and pointed his wand at the tree.

McGonagall hurried down and took her box.

Snape immediately reactivated the protective spell.

"Open it here, Professor!" Brown cried. She and her friends slid down the bench to make room for their head of house at the end of the table. The whole of Gryffindor house agreed with Brown and McGonagall was trapped.

With a sigh she put the box onto the table of her house and opened it.

"I can't see!" cried an excited first year. "Is it Godric Gryffindor?"

It was not.

What McGonagall lifted from the box was a book.

"A book?" the resident bookworm, the Granger girl, squealed with delight. "What is it?"

"'The Heroic Deeds of Godric Gryffindor'", McGonagall read out. Then she beamed. "It was written by Helga Hufflepuff! Children, we've got first hand stories about our founder!"

"We must make a list," Granger suggested. "Everybody will want to read it. There has to be a waiting list!"

"We want to read it, too!" cried Justin Finch-Fletchely from the Hufflepuff-table. "Our founder wrote it, after all!" Many Hufflepuffs agreed.

McGonagall sighed. "Why don't we all stay behind after dinner and I read the stories to you all?"

The students applauded.

"Oh yes! Story time with Auntie Minerva!" somebody cried. Merry laughter filled the Hall.

In the evening, McGonagall indeed read the stories of Godric Gryffindor. The whole student body and most of the teachers were there. Snape had first thought of not going because he had homework to mark but in the end he was glad that he had decided on hearing about the founders.

True, Godric Gryffindor was the main character of the book but the others made appearances as well and there was a lot to learn.


	7. 7

7

On the morning of the 7th of December, Snape got to eat his breakfast in peace. He gulped down two cups of coffee before he chose his meal. The undisturbed consumption of his favourite morning treat had put him in a good mood and he went for pancakes. He even was frivolous enough to add a dash of butter and golden syrup after glancing around to make sure that nobody was watching. A bowl of whipped cream appeared out of thin air beside his plate.

Snape made a mental note to thank the house elves when he next saw one. The bowl was close enough to enable him to get the cream without drawing anybody's attention and it was small enough to be emptied in one scoop. As soon as Snape had taken his treat, the empty dish disappeared.

Snape wondered who was nice enough to let him eat in peace. A colleague? McGonagall had been impatient but then she was a Gryffindor. Gryffindors were not known for their patience and thoughtfulness. Snape was sure that Flitwick or Sprout would be kind enough to wait until he had eaten before they opened their window.

Or, of course, it could be a Slytherin student. His students knew their head of house well enough to know what he was like when he didn't get his coffee. His first class that day was with the second year Slytherins and his house certainly was shrewd enough to want to put him in a good mood.

While Snape was enjoying his pancakes – he discovered blueberries on his second bite – the Great Hall filled with people. McGonagall sat beside him and croaked a good morning.

"Hoarse, are we?" Snape smirked.

"You try and read a whole book loud enough for the whole Great Hall to hear after you have taught a whole day," the witch snapped but the effect was much weaker than usual due to her hoarse voice.

Snape took another bite of pancake. "I was wondering why you didn't use a sonorus charm," he admitted.

"A sonorus charm changes the tone and timbre of the voice too much. It's unpleasant to listen to a whole story read that way," Minerva informed him. "Has today's box been opened yet?"

"No," Snape finished the last of his whipped cream. "I suspect we get a Slytherin student or a teacher today."

The holder of the gold coin sporting the number 7 came forward only when the last student had arrived. Snape was not surprised. Draco Malfoy was, after all, one attention seeking brat.

"Professor," the blond spoke in that clear trained voice, "if it is convenient for you, would you be as kind as to enable me to take my box?"

"Be careful or you'll slip on that trail of slime you're producing, Malfoy," Weasley shouted from the Gryffindor table.

"You forgot to say 'please'!" Granger added.

"Very well, Mr Malfoy," said Snape, ignoring the Gryffindors who were obviously out to disturb Malfoy's treat as much as possible in revenge for what he had done with Weasley. He pointed his wand at the tree and Malfoy started to search for his box.

Snape watched the blond look for a minute or two.

"The castle removed the box when it realised you had gotten the coin!" crowed Potter.

"It's on the backside," Snape came to Malfoy's rescue. "Quite far up. I can see it from here."

"Thank you, Professor, your help is appreciated", the blond said politely.

He had to use his wand to get the box down. Flitwick applauded a well performed levitation charm. Personally, Snape thought that the applause would have been justified if a first year had performed the spell but for a NEWT student, Flitwick's reaction was ridiculous. Of course Snape didn't say anything to take away from a Slytherin's success but really!

Malfoy meanwhile had taken his box back to the Slytherin table.

"I hope you get horse dung!" cried Finnigan from the Gryffindor table.

"That's enough, Mr Finnigan," McGonagall scolded before Snape could take points. "Let Mr Malfoy open his treat in peace."

"But he…" started Weasley but was interrupted by the witch.

"Then you should show him who is the better man and hold your tongue, Mr Weasley," she admonished.

Snape saw Draco snort at that but he was clever enough to do it for the Slytherins to hear but not McGonagall.

The blond opened his box. "Oh, Draco, it's beautiful!" cried Pansy Parkinson.

"Just what we need!" agreed Goyle.

Together the Slytherins lifted a huge banner in their house colours out of the box.

"This will be great at the next Quidditch match!" cried a little first year.

"Wow! Does that snake move?" squealed another.

"Allow me," Snape drawled from the head table. He pointed his wand and the banner was lifted in the air for everybody to see properly.

It was Slytherin green with a huge silver serpent on it. The snake swayed gently and flicked its tongue from time to time.

"That's repulsive," stated somebody from the Gryffindor table. A retching sound was made.

"It is beautiful, and you are only envious," Malfoy said calmly. "Come, let's move it to our common room. We can display it there when it's not needed for Quidditch!" The Slytherins got up as one and trooped out of the hall with their new banner.

Snape followed. He suspected that the ceiling of the common room was too low to give the banner enough room but he had a good expansion charm or two up his sleeve. It was time the Slytherin students got an extra lesson.


	8. 8

8

The next morning, Snape was in for a surprise.

Dumbledore sat at the centre seat of the Head Table. He was having a chat with the half dozen students who were already present. The children sat at the ends of their house tables, as close to the Head Table as they could get, and informed the headmaster about their studies and evening activities when asked.

"A Transfiguration club sounds like a great idea, Mr Walkins," Dumbledore was saying to a Hufflepuff second year when Snape took his seat beside the old wizard. "You can practice your spells together and encourage each other to do even better."

The small boy blushed with pride.

"Have you invited all of Hufflepuff house or only your own year?" asked Dumbledore. "If you get the NEWT students to join, they can teach you a lot!"

"I thought about it," said the Hufflepuff. "So far I told only the first three years but I think I'll invite the rest, too."

"Very wise, Mr Walkins, very wise!"

Snape followed the exchange while he had his first cup of coffee.

The next to be addressed by the headmaster were two fourth year Slytherin girls.

"Are you enjoying your new common room decoration?" asked the old man. "That banner was magnificent!"

"It looks great in our common room," agreed Mathilda Goyle, a cousin of Gregory's. She had inherited the bulky Goyle frame but her brains clearly came from her mother's side. In Snape's opinion she was by far the brightest Slytherin student in her year. "Professor Snape showed us how to expand a room to give space to our new banner. It was very interesting. Unfortunately the castle is protected against students changing its structural design. It's a pity we can't practice what he showed us." She looked at Snape apologetically as if it was an affront against him that she couldn't try out what he had shown her.

"Hm," said Dumbledore. "Why don't we put up a hut on the lawn and you can try to expand that. A tent might work, too. Which spells did you use, Severus?"

They discussed expansion charms in low voices for a couple of minutes. Snape had chosen those which gave the students the least opportunity to damage anything if they tried it out unsuccessfully. Dumbledore congratulated him for his choice and then started a lengthy discussion on the benefits of various other charms.

In the middle of their conversation, Flitwick arrived and joined them. He disagreed with Dumbledore on one charm in particular. Dumbledore had deemed it the best for expanding stone structures but Flitwick knew another of which Snape had never heard before.

"Well, the best expansion charm I ever saw was by Newt Scamander," Dumbledore said as he reached for a bowl of porridge. "He used to carry a whole farm in a suitcase."

"Leather is great for expanded vessels," agreed Flitwick. "Especially dragon hide."

"It looked like a quite ordinary suitcase from the outside," Dumbledore mused. "But I guess somebody who could spell the inside of a suitcase like that would be able to camouflage dragon hide."

"A whole farm in a suitcase?" Snape asked doubtfully. "How big was that suitcase?"

"Just big enough for a slim man to get inside," Dumbledore shrugged.

"Size doesn't matter if you know your charms," Flitwick pointed out. "If you know what you're doing you can make Hagrid fit through the eye of a needle."

Snape snorted. "I'd love to see that!"

"I'm game," grinned Flitwick. "I spell the needle and you convince Hagrid to slip through."

"I bet a galleon that your spell is too weak to accommodate Hagrid," McGonagall said from the side.

"A galleon that Filius can spell the needle but Severus can't make Hagrid try it out." Dumbledore held out his hand and McGonagall took it.

"A galleon that Severus and I can make Hagrid step through the needle right here at the Head Table at dinner." Flitwick glared at their colleagues.

When the whole student body was assembled, Dumbledore got up and presented the coin labelled '8'. Snape lifted the protective spell and the headmaster summoned his box.

It was tiny.

When Dumbledore opened it and tried to squeeze his fingers in to get his present, he discovered though that it was far bigger on the inside than on the outside.

Flitwick and Snape grinned at each other and the small charms teacher gave the castle the thumbs-up when the headmaster had to step inside his matchbox-sized box.

The students waited with baited breath for the headmaster to reappear. When he did so, the old wizard was holding a silver sewing needle.

"There's a ballroom in there!" he cried excitedly. "We could hold a dance in this box!"

"A ballroom, Albus?" asked McGonagall. "A ballroom and the only thing you bring back is a needle?"

"It was empty but for the needle!" Dumbledore defended himself. He handed said needle to Flitwick to use it for his spell in the evening.

After dinner, the tiny wizard lost a galleon because Snape couldn't convince Hagrid to step through the eye of the needle simply because Hagrid wasn't there. Snape suspected that Dumbledore had sent the half-giant on an errand but he couldn't prove it.

The evening was fun though because Dumbledore had decided to make us of his matchbox-ballroom and threw a party in there for the entire staff and student body. There was food and music and even Snape was seen waltzing with Vector and McGonagall.


	9. 9

9

Snape was late the next morning. He hurried up from the dungeons, hoping to make it in time to grab a mug of coffee and some toast before the elves removed breakfast and started their lunch preparations.

He was dumbfounded to find the Great Hall empty.

Gingerly he walked up to the head table. Breakfast was still there and, by the looks of it, untouched.

"May I speak to a house elf?" Snape asked the table.

A little creature wearing a freshly laundered tea towel with the Hogwarts crest appeared by his side and bowed. "How may Flappy be of service?" the elf asked solemnly.

"Where is everybody today?" Snape asked.

The house elf flapped his ears. "Everybody is still asleep! As we speak, the first children are stirring in bed!"

"And the staff?"

"The same!" the elf bowed. "Can Flappy bring any special breakfast dish for the professor? The house elves have been up for hours and we are bored."

Snape knew better than to keep the house elves unoccupied. It was common knowledge, after all, that they suffered when they were unable to work.

"Why don't you prepare a variety of breakfast dishes from all over Europe for the whole school?" he suggested. "Greek yoghurt with honey and nuts, freshly baked croissants, Austrian brioches, muesli, I'm sure you can think of more. I expect at least ten different dishes not typical for the British isles."

"The elves will be excited to hear Professor Snape's orders!" he bowed until his nose touched the floor. "Flappy will bring the good news immediately! Praise Professor Snape! He gave us work!" he disappeared with a crack.

It started five minutes later. Bowls and platters appeared on the house tables.

Snape was just reaching for a deliciously looking Austrian brioche when McGonagall sat down beside him with a thump.

"Tired, Minerva?" Snape asked, amused.

The witch glared at him. "Not all of us are potions masters," she growled. "What did you take?"

"Just a drop of hangover potion and a dash of wakefulness draught," Snape admitted. "Do you want me to spike your tea?" He showed a small vial.

"Yes, please," breathed McGonagall. "You are a life-saver, Severus!" She even went as far as to peck the potions master's cheek once she had had a healthy sip of wakefulness draught-spiked tea. Since nobody else was present, Snape didn't mind.

"Always aiming to be of service," he smirked.

"What is this?" Once the witch was no longer drowsy, she sampled the food.

Snape shrugged. "It might be something Polish. I'm not an expert. The elves were bored and I ordered an international breakfast feast for everybody. Although I don't know when the students are going to eat it. Classes are to start in a quarter hour."

McGonagall made a dismissive gesture. "I cancelled all morning classes."

"You can do that? I thought cancelling classes was headmaster's privilege," Snape pointed out.

"Do you suggest I go and wake Albus?" asked the deputy headmistress. "After he only stopped dancing four hours ago? I'm still wondering where he got the energy. You didn't brew him a stamina potion, did you?"

"No," Snape reached for another brioche. "These are delicious," he waved it at McGonagall and she took one, too. "If he had any, he must have bought it."

"Or brewed it himself," McGonagall pointed out. "Albus has worked in the field of potions."

Snape had to agree.

The first student arrived more than a half hour later. It was a Ravenclaw girl, third year, Snape recalled. Only minutes later a group of Slytherins arrived, and a quarter hour later, everybody was there.

Dumbledore arrived last. He praised McGonagall for cancelling the lessons and Snape for arranging for the special breakfast.

When everybody was fed, a fourth year Hufflepuff, Wallace Hornby, stepped forward and presented his coin to Snape. The potions master allowed the boy to take his advent calender box and the returned to the Hufflepuff table with his prey happily.

"It can't get any better than what we already got," Wallace told his house mates, "but I really hope this is something nice for the whole house, too."

He opened the box and everybody in the Great Hall craned their necks to see.

"Wow!" cried the boy.

He lifted a brand new broomstick out of the box.

"There's another!" he cried, excited.

And really, there was another broomstick. But it didn't stop at that. When he lifted the seventh out of the box, the Hufflepuff Quidditch team cheered, but there still were more!

There were a total of twenty brooms in that little red box.

"New school brooms!" cried Madam Hooch.

The Hufflepuff Quidditch team was disappointed but the headmaster had a solution. "Why don't we give seven to the Quidditch team," he suggested, "and use the rest as school brooms. I'm certain not everything we have needs to be replaced."

Madam Hooch agreed that, yes, there were a couple of school brooms that were in excellent condition and could be kept.

"What happens with the old brooms?" asked Finch-Fletchely of Hufflepuff. "I always wanted to try and repair one but my family doesn't own any old broomsticks."

"Your family doesn't own any broomsticks at all!" crowed Draco Malfoy from the Slytherin table. "They didn't even know that they could before your Hogwarts letter turned up!"

The Slytherins laughed and the Hufflepuffs glared at them angrily.

"I can show you how to repair an old broomstick, Mr Finch-Fletchely," Madam Hooch interfered. "Since we have 13 brooms we can replace, I can offer a workshop for up to 26 students if you are willing to share a broom. The workshop will take place tomorrow and you need to be on NEWT level to participate. Younger students cannot hope to grasp the necessary magic yet. Hufflepuffs will be admitted first."

There was a total of 30 people who wanted to participate in the workshop and Madam Hooch agreed to let them all come after four groups of three had spoken up and offered to share a broom in a bigger group.


	10. 10

10

The next day was Saturday and Snape was looking forward to a quiet day in the castle with some grading, some brewing and maybe even a little time to read. He didn't expect any trouble because Hooch was going to take the worst trouble makers off everybody's hands for the day. Potter, Malfoy and their sidekicks had been among the first to sign up for the broomstick workshop.

Snape allowed a tiny smile to show on his face when he pictured Hooch dealing with those rascals. The flight instructor had, in Snape's opinion, the easiest job among all of Hogwarts' teachers. She needed to deal with the unwilling and ungifted for only a couple of weeks during the first weeks of the school year and after that it was only the Quidditch enthusiasts that crossed her path. Today, for once, she was going to get the full spectrum. Snape had seen a couple of students sign up for the course who definitely weren't interested in flying but wouldn't want to pass the opportunity to learn some more magic.

The potions master smirked as he could see Granger shove her hand into Hooch's face, eager to volunteer unwanted information, before his inner eye.

"You are in a good mood, Severus," Vector breathed as he sat down at the Head Table in his usual seat. The Arithmancy teacher had opted for the chair Snape thought of as Flitwick's.

"It's Saturday," Snape pointed out the obvious. "I'm looking forward to a couple of free hours."

"Speaking of free hours," Vector batted her lashes at him and Snape asked himself whether the woman had the audacity to actually flirt with him, "I was wondering whether you'd be interested in working on those locksteps we had trouble with at the headmaster's party." She blushed.

Definitely flirting, Snape decided. Strangely enough, he didn't mind. "That would be most…" he searched for a word that wouldn't encourage the witch too much, "interesting."

"You are quite the dancer, Severus," the witch held out a basket of rolls offeringly. "I wonder which other talents you are hiding."

"Certainly not any worth exploring," Snape ignored the basket and reached for toast instead. This witch certainly didn't need encouraging. "I am lucky to work in a profession I really like. I don't have many hobbies other than what I do for a living anyway."

"I was under the impression that you rather dislike teaching," Vector sounded puzzled.

"I meant I like potions," Snape snapped.

"Ah!" the witch nodded. "I see. Well, what about those locksteps?"

Snape took a sip of coffee. "Why not. Would after lunch be convenient for you?"

"Certainly," the witch chirped a little too brightly for Snape's taste. "After the meal you'll have all the strength you need to twirl me around." She got up and took her plate a couple of seats down the table to Trelawney.

"What has got into those two?" Flitwick asked when he sat in the seat Vector had vacated five minutes later. "They are giggly like school girls!"

"No idea," Snape feigned ignorance. "They have been like that for a while."

"I wonder who gets to open today's box," Flitwick said while he watched his knife slice fruit into his porridge bowl. He flicked his wand when he thought that he had enough and set the spoon to stir with another spell.

"We'll just have to wait," Snape pointed out.

They didn't have to wait long though. Amaryllis Pendergast, a seventh year Slytherin, approached the head table and politely asked Snape to lift the spell if it was convenient for him to do so at this time.

"Certainly, Miss Pendergast," Snape said graciously and complied.

The box labelled '10' hung on the lowest branch of the tree and the girl had to get down on her knees and almost crawl under the tree to get it. Somebody catcalled from the Gryffindor table.

Lucas Flint of Slytherin was up in an instant. "Don't you dare to molest my intended, you redneck!" he thundered in the direction of the Gryffindor table in general. He rushed to the front of the room and stood to block the – undoubtedly spectacular – view of Ms Pendergast's behind for the Gryffindors.

"Who do you call a redneck?" Angus McLaggen got up slowly.

"I will call you whatever I want," Flint stood his ground. "As long as you don't treat my fiancée with respect, you can't expect any from me!"

"I wouldn't even look at her twice," McLaggen replied angrily.

Amaryllis was back up by then. She stepped beside Flint and put a soothing hand on his forearm. "Don't let this scum spoil our morning, dear," she whispered loud enough for the whole hall to hear.

Flint let himself be distracted and they turned around to return to the Slytherin table.

McLaggen chose this moment to fire a spell at the couple and it landed with a loud smack on the girl's backside.

She turned to Flint and asked him in a dangerously calm voice to hold her box for her.

Snape got up to interfere but found himself frozen by a spell from either Vector or Trelawney. Flitwick shrugged beside him. "He brought it upon himself," the small teacher squeaked.

Snape agreed but he'd have rather interfered anyway. Amaryllis Pendergast was Slytherin's resident master spell caster. McLaggen was not known for his excellent wand work. But then, Snape thought, Ms Pendergast was probably too wise to do serious damage in front of so many witnesses. He wondered how much the girl knew about timed spells.

The teenage witch didn't say a single word. Snape silently awarded her five points for successfully casting non-verbal spells. Spell after spell flew from her wandtip. She used her second hand for balance, it was a pleasure to watch.

First McLaggen's hair grew down to his waistline, then it turned bubblegum pink. Next his nose grew the size of an orange and turned violently green. The hapless Gryffindor screamed and it took Snape a moment to realise that his clothes were shrinking.

Somebody cast a spell from the Slytherin table but it went nowhere near McLaggen. Snape assumed that the whole of Slytherin house was watching out for Gryffindors trying to come to McLaggen's rescue.

Ms Pendergast's last spell sent McLaggen's wand flying. Snape watched it settle on one of the rafters with a smirk. It was going to be difficult for the boy to get it back down.

"10 points to Slytherin for punishment well doled out!" cried Vector at the same time Flitwick cried "20 points to Slytherin for exceptional spellwork!" Young Amaryllis bowed to the Head Table before turning back to Lucas Flint.

"Thank you, my dear," she breathed softly and took her box back in exchange for a peck on the cheek.

Snape, like everybody else in the Great Hall, watched avidly as the young lady opened her box at the Slytherin table.

Amaryllis looked into the box and smiled. "Books!" she cried for everybody to hear. "I think they are intended for the library. Since the castle itself gave them to us, they should get a place of honour."

She lifted a very old looking tome in green and silver from the box and held it high above her head for the assembled students to see: "Advanced Duelling", she announced.

The next book was bound in yellowish leather and decorated in black. "Concealment Charms for Finders"

The third was blue with bronze writing. "The Wisdom in Lunacy"

The last was covered in red and gold. Amaryllis lifted it with a snicker. "Chivalry for Beginners"

The Gryffindor table erupted in boohs and outcries of anger but Amaryllis stood her ground. "Draco," she slyly turned to the Slytherin with the best trained voice. "Kindly read out the title of this book, please."

"Chivalry for Beginners," Draco Malfoy read out, drowning out the Gryffindor protests effortlessly.

Snape, since he had already finished his meal, accompanied Ms Pendergast and her friends to the library, making sure that the books arrived there safely. Once they were under Madam Pince's protection, he had no doubt they would be available for generations of young witches and wizards to read.

Still in a good mood, he set out for the dungeons to get the correction of homework out of the way. He had, after all, afternoon shenanigans to attend.


	11. 11

11

Snape came to breakfast quite late the next morning. Vector was a merciless task master when it came to ballroom dancing, he had found out the previous afternoon. The witch made them repeat the same routine over and over until they both could perform it effortlessly and in perfection. Snape hadn't minded because a, Vector was a good dancer, and b, Vector had made interesting conversation the whole afternoon. The potions master, although he had studied basic arithmancy after he had left Hogwarts, had had no idea that there was so much mathematical magic hidden in waltz.

Dumbledore was already at the Head Table as were McGonagall, Flitwick and Vector.

"Ah, Severus!" the headmaster greeted his potions instructor jovially. "Septima tells us that you are quite the dancer! I had no idea you had it in you!"

Snape glared at Vector murderously. How dare she tell the greatest gossips at Hogwarts about their afternoon! He reached for a mug of coffee and then turned to McGonagall, pointedly ignoring the indiscreet witch.

"Do we know yet who is to open the calendar?" he asked the Transfigurations teacher.

"No, but you should be glad," McGonagall grinned. "That way you can take your time, laddie. We don't want you to be unable to regain your strength after the exhausting day you had yesterday. Eat, dearie, eat." She pushed a platter of sausages and scrambled eggs closer to Snape's plate.

"I don't know what you think I did yesterday," Snape snapped, "but you better get your head out of the gutter. It was completely harmless."

"I never suggested anything else," McGonagall defended herself. "There is a plethora of completely harmless but entirely exhausting activities. And thinking of it, I hope the person to open the box steps forward soon."

Snape was able to finish his meal in peace. The students were getting impatient, eager to start their planned Sunday activities.

Finally, when the last plate had been cleared and the last cup of tea consumed, Argus Filch walked up to the head table and presented his coin.

Snape lifted the spell and the caretaker got his box. Dumbledore waved him to the head table to open it and the old man happily accepted the offer.

"Oh, look at that!" he cried merrily.

In the box was a glass vial of sparkling dust.

"That's wonderful!" said Dumbledore. "You can use it to decorate your rooms, Argus!"

"It will look very festive," agreed McGonagall.

"I'll do it immediately!" cried Filch and left the Great Hall as fast as he could, Mrs Norris in tow.

"That was quite unspectacular," Snape pointed out after reactivating the spell to protect the tree.

"For you and me, my boy," Dumbledore agree, "but not for Argus. He got magical decoration for his private quarters. I don't think he has ever had that before."

McGonagall agreed and Snape saw the headmaster's point.

"Severus," the voice of Septima Vector interrupted his train of thought, "if you are done pouting, would you like to work on some tango today?"

"I'm afraid not," replied the younger teacher. "I have plans for today." He wasn't sure what those plans were going to involve but he definitely was not going to provide more material for the Hogwarts gossip mill!


	12. 12

12

Snape was not in a good mood when he walked up to the Great Hall for breakfast on the 12th. Sunday evening had been a debacle, Vector had all but torn down the door to his private quarters to get him to practice more dancing with her and Snape regretted having agreed in the first place. When he had finally opened the door to stop the woman making a scene, half of Slytherin house had been "busy" in that corridor. Once he had been rid of Vector, Snape had summoned the house in their common room and given them a lesson about how to eavesdrop discreetly.

Today, Snape was sure of it, he was in for a lot of teasing from the other teachers because Vector certainly hadn't foregone informing the whole staff about the events and smirks from his Slytherins. By the time he reached the Entrance Hall, it was confirmed that at least the latter was true. Snape was ready to throttle each Slytherin boy with his bare hands by the time he reached the Head Table. The brats had the audacity to grin at him while he walked down the aisle beside their table and some even muttered unwanted advice at him!

No, he was not going to make up with Vector! No, he was not going to dance with her and take what she offered in return (not that she had offered anything but more ballroom dancing)! For Merlin's sake, he was nearing his 40th birthday! He didn't need advice from 15 year olds!

"Severus," McGonagall confirmed the potions master's worst expectations, "you wicked man! How dare you get the hopes of a witch up and then trample on her heart in tango steps!"

"I did no such thing!" Snape snapped sourly.

"Oh, yes, you did! Septima cried her eyes out yesterday in the staff room!"

"She was okay when she left the dungeons!" the wizard reached for his beloved morning coffee.

"Woohoo!" Flitwick catcalled from the side. "She was in the dungeons? She didn't mention that."

Snape gritted his teeth. "She wanted to dance some more but I refused since she is a terrible gossip and I like my privacy. You can't deny that the gossip part is true."

"I wouldn't call it gossiping when a witch comes to her colleagues for comfort. It's not as if she had many potential confidants in the castle." McGonagall looked at Snape sternly.

"She wasn't in need of comfort after our Saturday meeting. Nevertheless she couldn't tell of our activities quickly enough."

Flitwick added his thoughts. "Perhaps if you socialised more, people wouldn't find it necessary to talk about the rare occasions when you do."

"Now it's my fault?" Snape bit into a scone as if it had offended him personally.

"I didn't say that," the small Charms teacher pointed out.

"But you meant it."

After that, Snape refused to discuss the situation any more and they ate in silence. It was rather uncomfortable and Snape hoped that some student was going to misbehave soon, just to give the teachers reason to speak again.

"Is something the matter?" Dumbledore asked when he arrived for breakfast a quarter hour later. "Why so quiet?"

"We had a difference of opinion," McGonagall informed him.

"Has it to do with the Septima Severus situation?" Dumbledore asked kindly. "I told you you need to let them sort things out on their own. A little lovers' spat happens from time to time."

"There was no lovers' spat!" roared Snape and the hall fell silent. Everybody stared at him.

"Certainly not," agreed Vector for everybody to hear, "who would love a cruel man like him!"

"Can anybody explain to me how we got from practicing a dancing routine to being quarrelling lovers without me realising it?" Snape shouted at her.

"Well, Severus, you are sometimes quite oblivious to the social on-goings around you," Dumbledore tried to be helpful.

"Be that as it may," the potions master rounded on his superior, "but I'm sure not even I would miss falling in love. And I didn't notice a thing. It's safe to assume that I'm not in love with anybody!"

"Which is a pity," said the dreamy voice of Luna Lovegood from the Ravenclaw table. "Being in love has a calming effect and it helps fend off the weelittlebeasties. Although it will attract nargles."

Snape roared with frustration. "I'm not in love. I don't want to be in love! The next person to suggest it will end up as a potions ingredient!"

"No need to throw an undignified tantrum," Dumbledore said in his most benign voice. "I'm sure you'll find somebody. Now sit down and have some more coffee, Severus."

The mention of coffee did, indeed, have a calming effect on the potions master and he sat back down after glaring at Vector angrily for one last time.

Once it was safe to assume the tantrum was over, Harry Potter, teenage hero and Gryffindor poster boy, stepped up to the head table.

"Sir," the boy said politely, holding out a gold coin, "would you mind lifting your spell for me?"

Snape obliged and Potter went looking for his box. It was near the very top of the tree, mere inches below the golden star. Potter used a levitation spell to get it down.

"Of course," Draco Malfoy drawled from the Slytherin table, "getting his calendar box by hand is beneath the Chosen One."

"You try and get something by hand from up there," Potter spat at the blond angrily.

"I have friend to help me get up there," Draco pointed out in a bored tone. "You, of course, don't. You are right. I wouldn't trust Weasley to levitate me up there either. And you don't want to be levitated by the bookworm. She may have read about the necessary spells but she's all words."

"Shut up, Malfoy," Granger said calmly.

"Or what," smirked the Slytherin. "Are you going to hex me?"

"We've already seen what happens to boys who think they can offend young ladies," Granger pointed out. "I can make Amaryllis look like a saint." She hinted a bow to the other girl.

"You don't call yourself a lady, do you?" Malfoy laughed. "Really, Mudblood!"

"Mr Malfoy!" McGonagall was up in an instant. "I will not stop a little banter but you will not use that word in this castle again."

"I'm sorry, Professor," the blond managed to look guilty although Snape knew without a doubt that he didn't feel it. "I got carried away. I apologise, Granger."

Granger glared daggers at Malfoy but said in a calm voice: "Why don't you open the box, Harry. I'm sure everybody wants to know what you got."

Potter was wise enough to obey. He opened the box and took out another book. "Another gift for the library?" he asked, clearly disappointed.

"Why would Hogwarts give a moron like you a book, Potter?" taunted Malfoy.

"Which book is it, Harry?" asked Ginny Weasley. "Dealing with toerags for beginners?" She glared at Malfoy, too.

"A nativity play," Potter read out the title. He opened the book and read the first few lines. "Hang on! This is not a book! These are instructions for a nativity play! And the castle has everything planned out. I'm the director! Hermione, you get to play Mary!"

"I take it Malfoy is the ass?" Granger asked innocently.

The blond opened his mouth to protest but shut it when Potter announced, that, no, he was to play Joseph.

All the parts of the play were already assigned to students and members of staff. Dumbledore was put in charge of light effects, McGonagall, Snape and Ernie McMillan were to play the three wise men. Luna Lovegood was in charge of the costumes, and so on. At the end of the list, the members of the cast were informed that the play was to be performed on the 24th of December.

Not everybody was content with their assigned part – Filius 'Baby Jesus' Flitwick was beyond peeved – but all in all an atmosphere of contentment filled the room. The director ordered those who were involved to stay behind after dinner for a first rehearsal. When Snape left the Great Hall to get ready for his first lesson, Potter was discussing how to make copies of the text for everybody with Granger.

 _Author's note: due to unexpected events I'm not sure I'll be able to post a chapter every day like it's supposed to be done for an advent calendar._ _I'll do my best._ _Thank you for your patience._


	13. 13

13

Tuesday morning came much too early for Snape's taste. The first rehearsal of the nativity play had been exhausting and Dumbledore had to extend curfew for the students involved. Snape had no idea how they were going to produce a decent play until the 24th. Potter was difficult, Granger was difficult, Malfoy was difficult and those were not even the worst!

McMillan had gone on everybody's nerves by trying to make the part of the third wise man more important. McGonagall had thrown a fit when the boy suggested the wise men arrive early and help with the birth. Even Snape, who certainly had experience in belittling students, had pitied the boy once McGonagall was done with him. Sprout – who was one of the shepherds – had needed the better part of a half hour to convince the boy to say his lines because he was too scared McGonagall was going to berate him again for being an attention-seeking prat. Of course the deputy headmistress did berate him for holding up the whole rehearsal.

Weasley, who hadn't got any part in the play, spent the evening lurking near the door, throwing tantrums whenever Malfoy – Joseph – came near Granger – Mary. Which, unsurprisingly, resulted in Joseph pawing Mary every three seconds until McGonagall snapped at the blond that they were not trying to produce porn.

Potter had suddenly become an expert on acting and told everybody to do things differently. Snape was undecided whom to throttle – Potter or chief shepherd Goyle – if he had to listen one more time to the former telling the latter to say "What is that light?" with more feeling. Everybody knew, after all, that the only strong emotion Goyle was capable of was hunger. (Telling Potter that had turned out to be a mistake. Who'd have guessed that McGonagall could be so loud?)

When the potions master sat down at the Head Table – his rotten luck to be on breakfast duty on a day like that – his body was still in need of at least three hours of sleep. The house elves must have known about the evening's events because, to Snape's delight, the coffee was extra strong and there was a small dash for firewhisky in it. Snape was on his third cup by the time the first student turned up.

It was Bellatrix Avery, a second year Slytherin named for her mother's best friend. She greeted her head of house politely before she sat at the Slytherin table. For a couple of minutes the two Slytherins ate in companionable silence at their respective tables before the little girl addressed Snape.

"Sir," she said respectfully, "may I ask you a question concerning my potions homework?"

While the same question would have caused a near-death experience for any member of any other house, especially that early in the morning, Snape gave the young Slytherin a small smile. "Of course, Miss Avery," he replied kindly. "You know that I always like to discuss the finer points of brewing with those whom the Sorting Hat has put under my care. What is it that you wish to discuss?"

"Sir," Bellatrix put her cutlery aside because a discussion of potions required her undivided attention. "When I wrote my essay about the fever draught you assigned us, I found myself wondering why thyme was used in it. Wouldn't marjoram react better with the monkshood?"

"Well," Snape was proud of his little Slytherin. The potions was in the book exactly to for that reason. To make the students questions the use of thyme and learn that there was a whole list of properties you had to take into account when choosing an ingredient for a potion. He started a lecture on the differences between thyme and marjoram.

By the time he got to the finer points of the topic, a group of about a dozen Slytherins were listening, first years as well as NEWT level students. As students of other houses were starting to file into the Great Hall, too, Snape left the Head Table to sit at the Slytherin house table under the pretence of not wanting to have to drown out the chatter of a big number of students.

Once Snape had finished his lecture, the older students asked more questions related to the topic at hand. Snape answered them patiently and although the discussion was now well above the level of understanding for the lower years, they learned which questions to ask.

"Professor Snape, a word," McGonagall stood behind the potions master.

Snape got up and followed her back to the teachers' table.

"It's an outrage how you favour your own house," the head of Gryffindor complained.

"Minerva," Snape informed his colleague, "it's not my fault that you refuse to give your own students extra tutoring. You are free to do so, you know?"

"It would be completely unfair!" the Gryffindor protested.

"Bah," Snape reached for another mug of coffee. "Everybody but you does it. Pomona lets her students help tend to her more precious plants and Filius holds spell-casting competitions at the Ravenclaw common room. You are the only one who keeps her students' education at a bare minimum."

"At a bare minimum?" shrieked McGonagall, who clearly was still in a bad mood after the previous evening. "I will have you know that the top students of 5 out of 7 years is a Gryffindor."

"Yes," Snape agreed. "You do get gifted students but their achievements stand alone in your house. In spite of your top students, it's Slytherin who wins the House Cup regularly."

"That's not true and you know it!" McGonagall seethed.

"Unless you count those times when Albus rewards one of Potter's hare-brained adventures." Snape rolled his eyes.

"Severus Snape!" The students fell silence as their Transfiguration teacher yelled at their Potions master.

The situation would probably have turned into a true catastrophe hadn't it been for a small house elf who stepped between the two teachers.

"Winky is most aggrieved to disturb the master and mistress," the elf pulled at her ears awkwardly.

"What is it, Winky?" asked McGonagall. Since the headmaster was not present, she being the deputy headmistress was in charge of the staff.

"Winky has a coin." The elf showed a gold galleon sporting the number 13, clearly uncomfortable with holding money.

"Ah, splendid!" McGonagall unwittingly performed an excellent imitation of her superior. "Professor Snape will lift the shield for you immediately."

Snape didn't say anything, the elf was nervous enough as it was, and obliged.

The tiny elf stepped up to the tree and removed a small red box. She looked at McGonagall questioningly and only when the witch gave an encouraging nod, opened it.

BOOOOOM!

A ball of red, green and silver glitter rose from the box and exploded in midair. It was a very festive mess, but a mess nonetheless.

The elf beamed and clapped her hand excitedly. "Will Winky be allowed to clean all this on her own?" she was bouncing on the balls of her feet with anticipation.

"It was your box, you will have to clean this mess," McGonagall said kindly.

"And don't forget to do the laundry. I don't think brushing will be enough to get this stuff of my robes," Snape added.

A couple of students started to protest but were informed by those housemates who had experience with house elves that the potions master had just made little Winky a very happy elf.

By lunch time the Great Hall was back to its usual unglittering self and when he returned to his quarters after his afternoon lessons, Snape found not only the robes he had worn to breakfast freshly laundered but the entire content of his wardrobe.


	14. 14

14

On Wednesday Snape was woken earlier than usual by a house elf. The little creature was wringing its hands nervously and looked at the potions master fearfully.

"What!" Snape barked at the elf. Something important must have happened for a house elf to ignore Snape's order that no elf was allowed into his bedroom ever.

"Pitty begs master's forgiveness," whispered the elf in a shaky voice. "The headmaster is needing to see master immediately and master is to bring his stuff."

Snape was up in an instant. He grabbed his wand, a robe and his emergency satchel and threw himself into the fireplace. "Headmaster's office!" he cried. The flames licked at the smudge of floo powder at the bottom of the satchel.

Snape shrugged his robe on as he stepped into Dumbledore's office.

"Thank Merlin, Severus!" cried the old man. McGonagall was lying at his feet on the carpet. The witch looked very pale.

"What happened?" Snape asked as he rushed to the woman's side.

"We were talking and suddenly she passed out!" cried Dumbledore. "Poppy is visiting her brother in Ireland and will only be back around lunch time!"

Snape performed a couple of diagnostic spells he had learned during his apprenticeship. His master had been a potions master as well as a healer and had not only passed on the art of brewing to his apprentice but also basic knowledge of healing. It came in handy when you worked on healing potions when you knew a little about the illness you were trying to cure.

"She is drunk," Snape stated in a cold voice. "You woke me in the middle of the night because your drinking companion passed out on you!"

"Nonsense!" protested Dumbledore. "She hasn't had more than what she usually has when we stay up late to discuss school matters. You are not telling me that Minerva passes out because of a couple of shots of firewhiskey. I have seen her drink a half bottle and then perform better magic than most sober people. It must be her heart!"

Snape checked again but there was no sign of a heart related illness. He ran through the more sophisticated diagnostic spells he knew but not a single one of them brought a result.

"If she is indeed ill," Snape concluded, "it must be something rare and complicated. I don't dare give her any potion when I don't know what befell her. We must call St Mungo's."

"I'm afraid you are right," sighed Dumbledore. "I'll floo call them immediately. Please stay with Minerva while I do it."

Snape monitored the witch's breathing and heart beat faithfully while Dumbledore talked to somebody at the magical hospital. Two minutes later a young man of maybe 25 stepped out of the fireplace. He knelt beside the potions master and his patient and started running his own spells immediately. He came up with the same results as Snape but unlike the potions master, the young healer had a lot more diagnostic magic up his sleeve.

"There!" he cried a half dozen spells after Snape had admitted to himself that this was much more complicated than what he was able to do in mediwizardry.

The healer got up. "She will make a full recovery," he informed the two older wizards. "We've had a couple of cases like this in the London area last month. It's the Sleeping Beauty syndrome."

"Sleeping Beauty syndrome?" echoed Dumbledore and Snape.

"Yes," nodded the healer. "It's caused by a virus. Most witches and wizards are carriers, but the illness affects only few. The victim falls asleep for 100 years."

"What?" cried Dumbledore. "I need my transfigurations teacher! I can't wait that long for her to wake up!"

"Well, there's always the method with the kiss," smirked the healer.

Snape glared at him and the young man paled.

"And there is a potion," he admitted. "It takes a couple of hours to make and the ingredients are rather common. I guess you will have everything you need in your supplies, Professor. However, it's difficult to brew because the timing is extremely important. You'll find the recipe in 'Moste potente potions, volume 2', page 394. I assume the book can be found at the Hogwarts library."

The healer didn't even wait for a reply but stepped back into the fireplace immediately.

Dumbledore called a house elf and ordered her to bring Snape the book in question while the potions master returned to his rooms to prepare everything for brewing.

The healer had been right. Getting the ingredients was no problem and Snape was confident that he was going to be able to brew the potion for McGonagall as long as he was not disturbed. Dumbledore promised to make sure he could work in peace.

Snape brewed for almost 8 hours. By the time the potion was ready, the potions master was famished. Nevertheless, he took the potion up to the headmaster's office first.

"Brewed to perfection, as always, Severus," the headmaster praised as McGonagall started stirring mere seconds after Snape had administered exactly seven drops of potion. "You must be hungry. Why don't we have lunch up here? Minerva can join us when she has fully recovered."

Later, Snape wouldn't have been able to tell what he had had for lunch. He remembered that he ate but he was too tired to register what it was. A night with only little sleep, extremely accurate brewing on an empty stomach and the worry for his colleague were taking their toll.

When the potions master woke, he was lying on one of Dumbledore's sofas, covered with the softest blanket he had ever touched.

"Ah, finally," Dumbledore said from his desk. "I was beginning to fear you had caught the Sleeping Beauty syndrome, too, and who would have brewed the potions for you? We would have had to revert to the kissing plan." The old man smiled benignly.

"I'll thank you not to mock me after they day I've had," Snape said as he sat.

"And I'm afraid it is not over," Dumbledore sighed. "I need you to go down to dinner and allow today's calendar window to be opened. The students are very unhappy about the delay."

Snape couldn't have cared less how the students felt about the unopened calendar window but knowing Dumbledore, he said nothing and went down to the Great Hall.

He was, to his utter surprise, greeted by cheers.

It was Luna Lovegood of Ravenclaw who made a beeline for him, waving a gold coin. Snape didn't wait for the girl to say anything. He just waved his wand and allowed her to get her box.

The girl happily plucked her prize from the tree and skipped off to the Ravenclaw table.

"What is in it?" somebody cried from the Hufflepuff table.

The girl opened the box and lifted a small figurine of a witch in a blue and bronze ballet outfit from it. Snape had no idea how the Ravenclaw knew what to do, but the blonde touched the tiny witch with her wand and a sweet lullaby filled the Great Hall. The little dancer started to move gracefully.

Everybody craned their neck to see better. There were remarks how beautifully the little ballerina danced but Snape wasn't interested in that. It was the lullaby that caught his attention. It was almost hypnotizing!

Snape hid a yawn, reinstalled the spell on the tree and silently made his way out of the Great Hall. By the time the figurine had finished her dance, the potions master was happily wrapped up in his bed, fast asleep.


	15. 15

15

Snape woke well rested and in a good mood after a full night's sleep filled with dreams of dancing with a lithe ballerina. The blue dress Lovegood's figurine had worn had at some point during the night turned into a tight Slytherin green gown that was slitted higher than was appropriate. The brown hair of the porcelain ballerina had first turned black and then a vivid red. The lullaby music had changed little by little to passionate tango music and a single red rose had appeared out of nowhere.

"You are up early, Sir," Pansy Parkinson greeted Snape politely when he turned around the corner into the corridor leading up to the Great Hall.

"So are you, Miss Parkinson," Snape replied with dignity.

The girl beamed at him. "I couldn't sleep," she admitted eagerly. "Today is my turn to open the advent calendar. I'm so excited. I really hope the castle has a nice present for Slytherin house."

"For Slytherin house?" Snape asked shrewdly. "Not for yourself?"

"A present for the house would help my social standing more than any individual gift I could get," Pansy replied earnestly.

Snape allowed himself a snicker. "That's the true Slytherin spirit, Miss Parkinson. Your family must be very proud of you."

The girl blushed at the praise from her head of house. "Do you mind if I walk up to the Hall with you, Sir?" she asked eagerly.

"Not at all, Miss Parkinson. It will be my honour to escort a young lady to breakfast." He hinted a bow playfully.

Pansy recognised one of the rare occasions her head of house allowed himself to behave light‑heartedly with his students. "You make me blush, noble Sir," she curtsied and laid her hand on Snape's proffered arm.

They walked up the corridor in a proud pace worthy of a king and queen on their way to a ball.

"Sir, I thank you for your kindness," Pansy said before they reached the part of the corridor that could be seen from the Entrance Hall. She removed her hand. "When may I approach you for my present?" She showed the gold coin.

"We could do it right now but I think it would be wiser to let the whole house watch, wouldn't it?" Snape offered his advice.

"We wouldn't want anybody to miss who got the present for the house," Pansy agreed, forever the Slytherin.

Snape gave her one of those little smiles he reserved for his snakes before he stepped out into the Entrance Hall and proceeded to breakfast.

Pansy followed a minute later. Draco Malfoy and Blaise Zabini had caught up with her and the three sat at the end of the Slytherin table nearest to the calendar tree.

Snape helped himself to coffee and scrambled eggs and, since his three Slytherins were the only students present, indulged in a little daydream about a particular difficult tango move he had managed so effortlessly with his dream ballerina. He wondered for a brief moment whether Vector was any good at the tango but then decided to not find out. That witch was much too possessive for his taste.

"Good morning, Severus," Snape was startled out of his musings by McGonagall who sat beside him and reached for a slice of apple crumble and tea. "I don't think I have thanked you enough for what you did for me yesterday. I'd have hated to sleep for hundred years and find everybody gone when I woke."

"Nonsense," Snape replied in a teasing tone. "We would have found your true love to kiss you awake in no time at all."

McGonagall laughed. "I'm really too old to appreciate youngsters queuing up to kiss me." She slapped Snape's arm playfully.

"Ouch!" the potions master complained. "Is that the way you thank your saviour? – We would have started with Albus, of course!"

"Albus? Thank you, but no thank you." McGonagall shuddered.

As the hall filled with students, more teachers arrived for breakfast and McGonagall made it her personal duty to point out what Snape had done for her, just in case anybody had missed the speech Dumbledore had made the previous evening to inform the students.

Everybody congratulated Snape on saving McGonagall and all the males reassured the witch that they would have volunteered to kiss her right away.

By the time the last student had arrived, the teachers were all in a good mood and jokes were made about McGonagall's illness that were not appropriate for student ears.

Once everybody was present, Pansy Parkinson stepped up to the Head Table and asked Snape to let her get her box. Snape winked at her and lifted the spell.

Pansy's box was middle-sized and hung quite high up the tree. Malfoy and Zabini didn't need to be asked. They got up and formed a stirrup with their hands for the girl. Pansy held onto their shoulders and stepped up on their hands. Carefully she let go of Zabini and reached for her box. Once she had it, Malfoy held out a hand for her to put the box in. Pansy gave her prize to the blond to hold and carefully climbed down to the floor.

"Thank you," she said sweetly as she took her box back. "Unlike some," she pointedly looked at the Gryffindor table, "you are true gentlemen."

"It's all a question of breeding and decent upbringing," Malfoy replied in that carrying voice of his. "I guess you don't have time to teach your children manners if you don't know when you'll be able to bring food on the table the next time."

Weasley was up in an instant but his sister beat him to it. She hexed Malfoy and the Great Hall erupted in laughter.

"What?" cried Malfoy. He carefully touched his face since he didn't feel any effect from the hex that had been thrown at him.

"Your hair, Draco!" cried Pansy in a horrified voice. "You look like a Weasley!"

"Take that back, Weaselette!" roared Draco. "Or my father will make sure your family loses the pigsty you live in! You will be surprised how much deeper your family can sink."

"Are you threatening my girlfriend?" Potter shouted back. "If you as much as touch a hair on her head all your father's money won't be enough to free you from the hole I'm going to bury you in!"

Snape rolled his eyes. "That will be enough," he said sternly.

"Mr Potter!" McGonagall cried beside him. "Calm down!"

"You are spoiling my gift!" Pansy howled.

"Who cares about your gift," Ronald Weasley had managed to shake off Granger who was trying to hold him back. "The ferret threatened my family!" He threw another hex in Malfoy's direction but Zabini had his wand at the ready and deflected it easily.

It took the teachers almost ten minutes to restore calm. By that time Pansy was in tears, several more Slytherins had red hair and Potter was bleeding from his lip where he had been hit by his best friend's elbow when he tried to keep him from going over to the Slytherin table and start a fist-fight.

"Do calm down, Miss Parkinson," Snape said when everybody had sat down and a considerable amount of red and green stones had been removed from the big hour glasses. (The Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff students were radiating with glee.) "Why don't you open your box now?"

The box, it turned out, was just what Slytherin house needed there and then. In it was an elegant Slytherin green wizard's hat with a silver serpent pin for every single student and even one for Snape. With the new hats, the Weasley red hair was almost invisible.

Snape promised the affected students to find the counter curse before lunch and the Slytherins went to their lessons peacefully.


	16. 16

16

Snape was in a good mood the next morning. He had spent a lot of time with his Slytherins the previous day as it had turned out that the best way to counter the red hair problem was to administer a simple enough potion in small but frequent doses. Therefore the potions master had gone to the Slytherin common room after classes. Between giving his students the appropriate amount of potion, Snape discussed the finer details of NEWT potions with Miss Pendergast and her friends, wiped the dungeon floor with Draco Malfoy in a game of chess, discussed pureblood courting dos and don'ts with two of his seventh year boys, explained to his OWL students how to make the potion he was handing out and why moonstone was one of the essential ingredients and finally warned the girls never to use the potion without having been cursed, no matter how soft it made their hair.

"It is," he said sternly, "only a side effect. The potion was invented to change your hair colour. Since the side effect is considered agreeable by most, nobody ever cared to change the recipe to avoid it. We do not know the effects of the potion on a person who has their hair in its natural state."

"What do you guess the effect would be, Sir?" asked Zabini politely and Snape had spent the better part of an hour discussing his guesses.

Now he was on the way to breakfast and, as mentioned before, in a good mood.

It wasn't meant to last though. Before he even reached the Entrance Hall, the mark on his left forearm burned. The pain was not bad enough to indicate that the Dark Lord was furious but too bad to have breakfast first. The Dark Lord wanted a meeting and he wanted it quickly.

With a sigh, Snape made a beeline for the castle doors. He hurried down the lawn and past the boars guarding the Hogwarts grounds. As soon as he had left the premises, he apparated, letting the Dark Lord guide his direction through the mark.

The potions master was not surprised to rematerialize in front of the gates of Malfoy Manor. The Dark Lord often resided there as it was in a better state of maintenance than his own ancestral home, Riddle Manor, and since the Malfoys owned house elves, the food was better there, too.

The gates opened for him before he had even pressed his mark against the decorative iron letter M that served as a door opener for people bearing the Dark Lord's mark. Snape hurried up the driveway, ignoring the beauty of the snow-covered parklike gardens that led up to the house. He had no time to snicker about how the Malfoys' prized white peacocks became invisible in the snow which was absurd for creatures only cultivated to show off.

Lucius himself waited at the front door for the potions master.

"Ah, thank goodness! He's desperate to see you!" he said instead of a greeting.

"What's the matter?" Snape asked. Even the few seconds it took to get from the front door to whichever room the Dark Lord had chosen for the meeting would be welcome to prepare.

"I'm not to tell you," Lucius turned and led the way to one of the smaller dining rooms. Snape took the choice of meeting room as a good sign.

"Sit, Severus," the potions master was greeted by the Dark Lord, who was busying himself buttering his toast. "Have you had breakfast?"

"No, my Lord," Snape answered honestly. "Your call reached me on the way there."

"Lucius, a cover for Severus if you please," the Dark Lord ordered. "And why don't you have breakfast with us, too?"

"I shared a meal with Narcissa earlier," Lucius hinted a bow, "but I'll have a cup of coffee if my Lord approves."

"A cup of coffee then," the dark wizard waved the blond away.

Lucius returned with a tray two minutes later and put plates, cups and cutlery on the table. While the Dark Lord was very fond of house elf made meals, he didn't like to see them. He preferred the master of the manor as his personal servant.

Once everybody was seated and Severus was tucking into a full English breakfast, the Dark Lord made the reason for the call known.

"Lucius received a letter this morning," he informed Severus. "Draco informs him that there was cursing over the window of an advent calendar but you saved the day by brewing a potion."

Severus nodded mutely as he had his mouth full of scrambled egg.

"Severus, why was I not informed that there is another advent calendar? And why wasn't I invited to open a window?" the Dark Lord asked with dangerous calm.

"My Lord," Severus swallowed his scrambled egg so quickly he nearly choked on it. "The calendar was provided by the castle itself. It was the castle that chose the people who are to open windows. There's nothing that can be done to let one be opened by a person who is not a resident of Hogwarts."

"Have you opened a window?" the Dark Lord snapped.

"I have opened the first one. There were muffins for everybody in it." Occlumency shields firmly in place, Snape had no intention of mentioning the gold coin with the number 23 that was on his bedside table. "The presents," he continued, "are always something for the entire house or for the entire school. There hasn't been a single personal gift so far. My Lord would be bored."

"Be that as it may," the Dark Lord reached for the marmalade which Snape took for a good sign. The Dark Lord was not known for eating and cursing at the same time. "You should have informed me. If nothing else, I can gain entertainment through your tales from this calendar."

"I shall keep my Lord informed from now on. I'll send an owl every day," Snape offered.

"Don't fail us again," the dark wizard waved Snape away and the potions master had to leave his half-eaten breakfast.

Snape hurried back to Hogwarts. If he was quick enough, there was a chance he could catch some more breakfast before the house elves cleaned away the food. That was why he arrived at the Head Table at an almost full run.

He just made it. Snape had barely grabbed sausages, egg and toast and put it on his plate before the platters of food vanished.

"You are late," McGonagall pointed out as she poured the potions master a cup of coffee from a pot she had snatched from the table as soon as she had seen that he was desperately trying to save food from the house elves' cleaning.

"I had a meeting," Snape informed her. He had to go and see Dumbledore before classes.

"You had one here, too. Miss Weasley is waiting."

And really. The she-Weasley was standing beside the calendar tree, glaring at the potions master impatiently. The golden trio and most of Gryffindor house were still seated, obviously waiting for their classmate to get her treat.

Snape rolled his eyes and waved his wand at the tree.

With a quick thank you, the red haired girl snatched her box from the tree.

"You'd better open that later," advised Snape, "or you will be late for classes."

"It is not her fault," McGonagall cried. "Go ahead, Miss Weasley. I'll write you a pass for your tardiness."

"And the rest of your house?" Snape asked innocently. "I will not excuse anybody's being late in potions."

"Since you're still sitting here eating, I don't see a problem. Don't you dare not finish your meal!" McGonagall growled at Snape when he made ready to get up just to spite her and her house.

"So be it," Snape sighed dramatically. "Open the box, Miss Weasley."

The girl didn't need to be told twice. She opened her calendar box and squealed with delight. One by one, she fished new quidditch robes for the whole Gryffindor team out of the small box. But it didn't end there. There were new broomsticks, too!

Snape growled. This was totally unfair! Why did the house of the lions get new quidditch equipment when all the other houses got were means to cheer for their team?


	17. 17

17

It was Saturday and once again Snape had been assigned breakfast duty on a weekend. This was why he entered the Great Hall at an ungodly hour, in a particularly foul mood. The castle itself seemed to catch his temper for the doors slammed shut behind him with a clap that could have woken the dead without Snape having to do anything.

The air seemed to crackle around the irate potions master and his robes billowed around him more dramatically than ever.

A steaming mug of coffee materialised in front of what was his usual spot at the Head Table before Snape had even reached his chair. Beside the mug appeared a small plate of chocolate cookies cut in the form of lambs and oxen.

Snape sank onto his seat and took a long swig of coffee. It was pure bliss. After another sip, he bit off the head of a chocolate cookie lamb. It tasted heavenly. The chocolate melted on the potions master's tongue and the biscuit smelled godly. Its fragrance of cocoa and a hint of caramel went excellently with the strong flavour of the coffee.

Little by little, Snape calmed down and his ire melted like the chocolate in his mouth. By the time the first students arrived, he was all collected and nearly ready for the day.

"Good morning, Severus," McGonagall greeted him, unaware of the near-catastrophe she had missed by only a quarter hour. "How are you today?"

"You seem awfully cheerful, today, Minerva," Snape allowed himself the use of the witch's given name since only an handful of students were present and they seemed much too tired to notice. "I take it the reason is the unfair advantage Gryffindor's quidditch team was given yesterday?"

"Unfair?" McGonagall asked innocently.

"It certainly is unfair when your team is the only one to get new brooms," Snape pointed out.

"We are hardly the only ones who got new brooms," replied the head of Gryffindor. "Hufflepuff got new brooms, too."

"Hufflepuff doesn't count," Snape replied through gritted teeth. Everybody knew that it was Slytherin and Gryffindor who competed for the cup every year. The other houses were mere supernumeraries as far as Snape was concerned.

"Pomona!" McGonagall waved at the Hufflepuff head of house who had just arrived for breakfast. "Come over, you're not going to sit there alone, are you?" Sprout's usual breakfast partners, Vector and Sinistra, were not there yet. The plump witch waved back cheerfully and made her way to her fellow heads of houses.

"You were saying, Severus?" McGonagall asked mock kindly as Sprout sat down at Snape's other side with a cheerful "good morning".

"Oh, do shut up," Snape growled.

"Severus!" Sprout was scandalized. "Is this the way you speak to your elders? And a lady!"

Snape huffed but didn't elaborate how McGonagall had earned the rude remark. Instead he reached for scrambled eggs and sausages to get a proper breakfast after the chocolate cookies.

Sprout chuckled as she caught sight of the leftover lambs and oxen. "A sacrifice to an irate deity to calm their temper? What had your wand in a knot that early, Severus?" she asked innocently.

"He thinks it's unfair that Slytherin didn't get new broomsticks," McGonagall informed her.

"But Slytherin got new broomsticks only a couple of years ago. A gift from the Malfoys if I remember correctly." Sprout pointed out.

"It's not the same," pouted Snape.

The teachers' bickering was interrupted by Hagrid. "Ah, Professor," the ground keeper stood in front of the Head Table, "I'm glad I caught you before you went off to some weekend project." He showed a gold coin. "It's my turn to open a window on the advent calendar."

"Congratulations for being chosen, Hagrid," said Snape. The Care of Magical Creatures teacher was one of his most important co-workers since he provided many of the ingredients Snape needed for his brewing. He lifted the spell from the tree and Hagrid retrieved a tiny box from the branches.

The moment he set it down on the nearest table – Hufflepuff – the box grew until it was big enough for Hagrid to sit inside it without magical help.

"Woah! Look at that!" Hagrid cried when he opened the box and looked inside. The teachers had to stand to look into the box and the students had no chance at all. Hagrid upended the box and a plethora of clothes fell on the table. "It seems I got the costumes for our nativity play!"

And really, there was a dress for Mary, robes for Joseph, a blanket for baby Jesus (Snape did not look forward to talking Flitwick into wearing that), simple smocks for the shepherds and a white taffeta monstrosity for the angel to wear.

"How convenient," McGonagall pointed out. "Albus scheduled a rehearsal for this afternoon. We can practice in costume."

"I have some brewing to do for the hospital wing before I join you," Snape informed the witch. "Can you watch the rest of breakfast? If I get started now, I can finish before the rehearsal."

McGonagall agreed "since she wanted to discuss quidditch strategies with Pomona" anyway and the potions master left the Great Hall before she could rethink.

Snape was quite happy with himself. Served the witch right to take over his breakfast duties and brewing was an excellent excuse to be late enough to leave convincing Flitwick of his costume to Dumbledore.

Yes, the day could have been bad, but he had managed to escape the worst.


	18. 18

18

Snape walked up to the Great Hall quite early that day, in spite of the fact that he had had breakfast duty the day before and was therefore free to come as late as he pleased. But, truth to be told, Severus Snape was quite the gossip and he certainly was not going to miss anything that was said at the teachers' table after yesterday's rehearsal of the nativity play.

He had arrived a little more than fashionably late, claiming that he had to finish brewing pepper-up potion for the hospital wing. Nevertheless he got to witness the major part of Dumbledore trying to convince Flitwick that baby Jesus – the small teacher was unhappy enough with his part as it was – certainly hadn't worn anything on his birthday but nappies and a blanket both of which had been provided by the advent calendar.

Flitwick had put up quite a fight but in the end Dumbledore had reverted to magic and put him into the costume by pure willpower. Knowing Flitwick, Snape expected retaliation today.

Just as Snape had anticipated, the small Charms teacher was already at breakfast, as was Vector who had breakfast duty that day.

"He caught me by surprise," the smallest Hogwarts teacher was saying to his colleague as Snape sat down. "But not today! Not today!"

"It was a scandalous thing to do!" Vector agreed with the head of Ravenclaw. "I must say though that I wouldn't have been able to wear that costume with the dignity you showed. You were wonderful!"

"And you knew all your lines," Snape added after his first sip of coffee.

"Baby Jesus has no lines!" Flitwick informed him through gritted teeth.

"On first sight, no," Snape agreed, "but you waved your arms at all the right times. And you bawled just at the right moment. What are you going to do to get back at Dumbledore?"

"As if I'd tell you!" Flitwick was scandalised. "It would be very unwise to share my strategy."

"Unless, of course," Snape remarked shrewdly, "you wanted to gain an accomplice."

"I don't need an accomplice and if I did, it wouldn't be you," Flitwick growled. "Everybody knows that you spend hours upon hours at the headmaster's office."

"I'm the resident potions master. We confer about health issues from time to time," Snape admitted.

"Poppy is the resident nurse and she doesn't spend hours at the headmaster's office," Vector pointed out. Snape wanted to throttle the witch.

The potions master was halfway through his third cup of coffee when the headmaster finally made his appearance.

"Good morning, everybody," he greeted the teachers merrily as he sat in the ornate chair at the centre of the Head Table. "Filius, I hope you hold no grudge because of yesterday. I felt the students were getting impatient."

The small Charms teacher didn't deign him with an answer. Instead he pointed his wand at the old wizard and hit him with a spell.

Dumbledore's clothes changed immediately. The dignified burgundy robes he had been wearing turned into a rather risky dress with a lacy corset and slits on the sides that went further up than Snape thought was appropriate. The solemn wizard's hat he had been wearing turned into a frivolous thing with pink ostrich feathers.

McGonagall who had entered the Great Hall right behind the headmaster clapped her hands. "Bravo!" she cried. "What a splendid piece of transfiguration!"

Flitwick bowed to her before he pointed his wand again. Dumbledore's hair and beard turned blond and curly.

"I deserved that," the headmaster cried in good humour. "But now my boots look rather out of place." He raised his right foot high enough to show his dragon hide boots. Snape covered his eyes – as did many of the students – since the movement allowed more of the old man's leg to show than he ever wanted to see.

Flitwick laughed and turned the boots into pink high heels.

The students shook their heads as Dumbledore got up from his seat and walked around the Head Table to show off his new outfit.

"You should have given him a boa," McGonagall pointed out to Flitwick.

Snape didn't need to be told twice. A secret flick of his wand and the deputy headmistress was sporting a scarlet feather boa whose colour clashed violently with Dumbledore's hat and shoes.

"Who was that?" the witch cried. She didn't wait for an answer but gave Vector's robes a rather violent pattern of holly and poinsettias.

The arithmancy teacher retaliated by giving Sprout a hat with antlers.

The head of Hufflepuff turned Trelawney's robes into a very formal black business suit, who in turn gave Sinistra – who was eying the business suit with interest – a Roman toga in flamingo pink.

Snape was not sure who did it but he roared with anger when somebody turned his perfectly black teaching robes into a white sundress with yellow polka dots.

The students roared with laughter and some of the NEWT level students decided to participate in the fun. Within less than five minutes the student body and staff were wearing silly outfits. Some were angry about the change, some embarrassed and some seemed to thrive in their new clothes.

Harry Potter was seen running his hands down his silk negligee repeatedly. Draco Malfoy tapped his black top boots with the whip that was part of his hunting outfit again and again. Hermione Granger was now wearing midnight blue dress robes that showed much more décolleté than was appropriate at a school while Ronald Weasley wore a furry coat that looked suspicious like a copy of Hagrid's favourite moleskin suit.

Once everybody had settled down again, Trelawney – still in her business suit – informed Snape that she was to open the advent calendar box for the day. "I have foreseen," she said, "that there was going to be a commotion and thought it wise to wait until the worst was over."

Dumbledore congratulated the witch to her wisdom and asked Snape to remove the shield from the tree. The potions master obliged and the divination teacher got her box.

"What is that?" asked Ernie McMillan who was sitting closest when the witch opened her box and took out a lump of clay-like stuff.

"That," Trelawney and Susan Bones who sat beside him, informed the boy in unison, "is cookie dough."

The divination teacher proceeded to take more dough out of her box. "Where are the cutters?" she muttered. McGonagall and Vector rushed to her aid. The transfiguration teacher conjured plates and Vector put the dough onto them.

"Ha!" Trelawney had found cookie cutters in the box. There were dozens of them. "It seems we are supposed to participate all in the fun!" the witch pointed out.

It was fun. Dumbledore called the house elves who had the house tables cleaned in no time at all. Flitwick, Snape and Dumbledore sent plates of dough and cookie cutters floating. The students turned the lumps of dough into cookies which they put on baking sheets provided by the house elves. The elves took the sheets to the kitchens to bake and returned the ready cookies to the Great Hall for the students to decorate.

Trelawney, Vector, Sinistra and McGonagall walked around and helped students with the rolling pins. Sprout and a group of Hufflepuff NEWT students made buckets full of icing for the students to decorate.

The house elves were delighted. When all the dough was used up, the Great Hall was covered in dough and sticky icing, as were many of the students' robes. It was clear that they were going to spend all afternoon cleaning up after the young cookie bakers.

Dumbledore decided that the students had had too much sugar and needed to work it off. He sent them outside for the afternoon after reminding everybody that there was to be another rehearsal after dinner.

Snape put a camouflage charm on a plate of particular nicely decorated cookies and retreated to the dungeons for the rest of the day.


	19. 19

19

Monday started with a nice surprise.

Not only appeared a steaming mug of coffee in front of Snape when he sat down for breakfast, beside it materialized a small plate of leftover cookies. Since nobody had taken the seats beside him yet, the potions master allowed himself a low chuckle when he spotted a gingerbread man with green eyes and a lightning bolt scar. Snape took a sip of coffee and then bit the gingerbread boy wonder's head off.

After a couple more bites of gingerbread, Snape started to ask himself whether his Slytherins had gotten their just share of cookies the day before because the house of the snakes was fully assembled at the breakfast table while only handfuls of students sat at the other house tables.

The head of Slytherin scented trouble.

"Is there something wrong," McGonagall asked when she sat beside him.

"What gives you the idea?" Snape asked innocently.

The witch chuckled. "You are glaring at your house as if you expect them to start a riot any moment."

"I am not," Snape growled indignantly. "What head of Slytherin would I be if I was as obvious as you suggest!"

"It's early in the morning," McGonagall reached for the bacon. "I'm sure old Salazar forgives you."

"I suggest you show more respect when you speak about our noble founder," the potions master snapped.

"As I said, it's early in the morning." McGonagall was clearly not in the mood for a fight.

"Tired?" Snape sneered. "What have you done yesterday evening? Kicked over the traces?"

The witch snorted. "I patrolled the upper corridors until midnight and then needed to take care of some administration business."

"Poor you," Snape poured his colleague a cup of tea. He could relate to her fatigue. The upper corridors were the worst evening assignment. For some reason every couple seemed to think you had to go to the upper parts of the castle for snogging. If he had a girlfriend, Snape pondered, he'd take her to a dungeon room. Nobody checked there ever. With a glare at his Slytherins, Snape decided to change that that very evening.

"You are a great help, Minerva," Dumbledore joined the conversation as he sat at the witch's other side. He reached for the pumpkin juice.

McGonagall snorted. "Next time I'll leave the Christmas cards to the governors to you."

"You did forge my signature?" Dumbledore asked after a big sip of juice.

"Of course, like always," McGonagall chuckled. Snape rolled his eyes.

Their conversation was interrupted by a scream. The teachers were up in an instant.

"My hair!" Susan Bones of Hufflepuff shrieked. Her usually blond hair had changed to an obnoxious shade of cherry red.

"And mine!" cried a little boy at the Ravenclaw table. He was sporting a head of green hair.

Somebody laughed at the Gryffindor table. The Weasley twins were looking at each other. One had no waist long blonde locks while the other's hair had turned Nymphadora Tonks' preferred shade of bubblegum pink.

Within a quarter hour, most of the students in the Great Hall acquired a new hairstyle. Colours changed, formerly straight tresses turned into a curly mess, at the Hufflepuff table, girls started to braid the boys' suddenly long hair. Snape thought it was hilarious that Harry Potter suddenly looked like Draco Malfoy's long lost brother.

Suspiciously enough, not a single Slytherin student got a new hairstyle.

Snape cast a last look at Dumbledore whose hair and beard had not changed colour but had become so fluffy, the headmaster's head looked like a huge fur ball before he got up and walked to the Slytherin table.

"The pumpkin juice, I assume," he informed his students in a low voice.

"You said you didn't know what the potion did if applied to natural hair," Draco Malfoy stated matter-of-factly. "Now we know."

"We really need to talk about how not to get caught," Snape glared at his house strictly. "You were so obvious, it's unworthy of Slytherin house."

Before he could start a lecture on how to play pranks without getting caught, Berenice Cumberton – a second year – interrupted him. "Sir," she said politely, "I have today's coin."

"This is not the time," Snape growled.

"But it is," the little girl disagreed. "That way we can enjoy the view of all those new haircuts a little while longer."

"Potter does look cute," Pansy Parkinson pointed out. "Not as cute as Draco, of course, but cute."

"I don't think that flush of anger does much for him," Daphne Greengrass pointed out. "But Berenice is right, I'd like to watch a little longer."

Snape looked over at the Gryffindor table where Harry Potter was in the middle of a tantrum while Ron Weasley – now proud owner of a Rapunzel-worthy braid – looked rather resigned.

"You are correct, Miss Cumberton," Snape agreed. "There's no time like now to do this." He lifted the spell off the Christmas tree and the girl went to retrieve her box.

This box was quite big. In it where enough Christmas ornaments to decorate all the common rooms, dormitories and classrooms.

Dumbledore fought his way through his fuzzy beard and hair to take a look and choose a glass phoenix wearing a Santa hat for his office.

McGonagall, expert for administrative tasks, assigned rooms to groups of students.

With the excitement of decorating the castle, the hair prank was forgotten. The students grabbed ornaments from the box and set out to make the school more beautiful than it had ever been for Christmas.

The teachers stayed behind to finish their breakfast. Halfway through Snape's third cup of coffee, Dumbledore's hair returned to normal. Snape was relieved. There were other things to do so close to Christmas than brew potions to restore the students' hair to normal.


	20. 20

20

Snape nearly missed breakfast on the 20th. He had had an exhausting day trying to fend off students who thought it was a good idea to decorate the potions classroom with one of the most potent ingredient available.

"Do you have any idea what could happen if one of those holly leaves falls into a cauldron?" Snape shouted at the top of his voice more than once. "Or, Merlin forbid, a berry!"

By dinner time he had assigned a five foot essay on what could actually happen if any part of holly – or any other Christmas decoration – to a total of five classes. That was going to teach them to try and decorate his realm!

Snape pondered how he was going to correct nearly two hundred essays over the Christmas holidays on his way up to the Great Hall.

"My students tell me you have them a very challenging assignment as homework," Flitwick greeted him when the potions master arrived at the head table. "The influence of Christmas decoration on potion brewing is not a standard topic that's discussed in the books."

"I specified which plants and animal parts they are to discuss," Snape informed his small colleague, watching with a pleased expression as the coffee pot tap danced to his cup, performed a short routine there and poured the coffee just when it was bowing to the cup in order to make it join the dance.

The look of pleasure vanished, when the cup bowed back and let the pot pull it into a whirling motion which caused a considerable amount of coffee to splash over the table and Snape's plate.

"Stop it!" growled the wizard and tried to catch the elusive piece of tableware. The cup was unbelievably quick. It danced around the coffee pot to hide from Snape, from there it made its way behind a platter of bacon and sausages and then continued to hide behind McGonagall's teapot. "Filius!"

The small charms teacher chuckled but spelled the cup to return to Snape and after an apologetic shrug to sit still and wait for the wizard to pick it up.

"Any window openers yet?" Snape asked after his first sip.

"No," McGonagall informed him from his other side. "But everybody knows that the tree can only be approached in your presence. It's no surprise that nobody came forward so far."

It was Hermione Granger of Gryffindor who came to Snape to ask his permission to get her box when the potions master had finished eating. Snape thanked her for letting him have his breakfast in peace and lifted the protective spell from the small Christmas tree.

The Gryffindor's box hung on the backside of the tree and Granger had to fight her way in between the Head Table and the tree.

"Be careful that the twigs don't catch in your hair!" Draco Malfoy shouted from the Slytherin table. "You will be stuck forever!"

Potter and Weasley were up in an instant but Granger didn't need their help. "Thank you for watching out for me, Draco!" she cried loud enough for the whole hall to hear. "That's so sweet of you!"

Malfoy made a face but sat down without another word. Parkinson slapped his arm not too gently. "Draco!" she whined.

Granger took her box back to the Gryffindor table where she opened it without much ado. With a squeal of delight she took out a very nice stationary set with luxurious white parchment, an elegant raven feather quill and a bottle of high quality black ink.

Delighted, the girl unscrewed the bottle. No sooner had she opened it, that the feather jumped and started to write.

"Professors!" the girl sounded panicky which was to say something seeing that she was considered the princess of Gryffindor by many. This girl had faced a troll at the age of twelve, a basilisk, werewolves and deatheaters. What was it that scared her?

The teachers rushed down to the Gryffindor table.

"Oh my!" gasped McGonagall.

"Merde!" Flitwick displayed so far unknown abilities in speaking French.

"Somebody get Dumbledore!" cried Vector.

Trelawney proceeded to predict bloodshed for Christmas.

Snape watched helplessly as the quill finished the letter to the Dark Lord and he was not surprised when the letter folded itself into an origami butterfly and took off as soon as the last i was dotted.

"I'm sorry!" sobbed Granger.

McGonagall hurried to tell her that it was not her fault and Dumbledore agreed when he arrived and was informed of what had happened.

"We can still hope that he has other plans," he soothed the girl.

Snape snorted. As if!


	21. 21

21

On the 21st, Snape missed breakfast. Or he didn't.

It was more than an hour before he had set his alarm clock that he was woken by a flare of pain in his left forearm. The potions master groaned but rolled out of bed obediently. He forewent his beloved morning shower, shrugged on a fresh set of robes after a quick refreshing charm on his body and – after a patronus message to the headmaster – was on his way to the Dark Lord's side.

Not only was the dark wizard wide awake and in a good mood, he was also in the company of a very disgruntled looking Lucius Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange who was fighting a losing battle against sleep.

"Severus!" the Dark Lord greeted Snape, "Welcome! Do sit down and break your fast with us!" He clapped his hands and one of the Malfoy house elves brought a pot of steaming hot coffee for Snape. Behind the small creature hovered a tray of various breakfast dishes.

The potions master thanked his lord, pointing out that he was not worthy to eat at the same table as his master, and ordered the elf to hand him a plate of scrambled eggs, bacon, beans, tomatoes, sausages and black pudding.

"We received a message this morning," the Dark Lord informed him while Snape sampled the food. "We are invited to Hogwarts for the Christmas party. I called you here to ask what would be convenient for us to contribute to the party. Entertainment? Food? Drink?"

"I don't think food or drink would be necessary. Hogwarts has a small army of house elves," Snape pointed out. "And we have a nativity play for entertainment."

"We cannot come emptyhanded!" cried the Dark Lord. Lucius and Bellatrix ducked in fear.

"Of course not, my Lord," Snape replied smoothly. "I was not going to suggest that. I was just pointing out that the necessities are being taken care of. This leaves you to think of a contribution that is not needed but welcome. How about a special dessert? Or maybe a musical act? Have you ever thought of forming a choir?"

"A choir?" the Dark Lord was very interested. "I could be the conductor."

Snape performed a gesture half nod, half bow. "You would be a great conductor and it would be a subtle show of power," he agreed.

Bellatrix and Lucius were now both glaring daggers at the potions master.

"Lucius! Call my followers! All of them! I need to choose the best singers!" the Dark Lord ordered. He banished the blond's breakfast when he didn't rush to obey fast enough.

"Bella! Get me someone who is able to play the piano or guitar or something. We need instrumental accompaniment for the auditions! Find a deatheater who has musical training! I can't do everything myself!"

The witch put down her fork immediately. "I think Rookwood's mother made him take piano lessons when he was a kid. Dolph used to tease him about it. I'll look into it immediately, my Lord!"

"I think I have seen Alecto play the harp," Snape pointed out.

"Yes, yes, I think I have, too," cried Bellatrix. "And we may have a drummer in Dolohov. My Lord," she got up to leave but turned back to her master before she did, "we may even be able to have a band with our choir!"

"Excellent!" cried the Dark Lord. "Organise everything! Auditions start in two hours! Severus, have you tried that marmalade?"

Snape asked the Dark Lord if it was possible to audition first – which, he pointed out, was for naught anyway since he possessed no musical talent to speak of – because he had lessons to teach.

The Dark Lord refused. Instead he sent a letter to Dumbledore to inform him that Severus was needed and that he ought to organise for a replacement teacher for the day.

Two hours later, Snape followed the Dark Lord to the ballroom of Malfoy Mansion. The Dark Lord conjured a lectern on a small raised platform and spoke to his followers.

"Again, we have been invited to a Christmas party at Hogwarts. Since headmaster Dumbledore was a great host those past years, we must contribute to the festivities. I decided that we are going to perform a musical act to the delight of the castle's residents. I called you here to determine who has the abilities to contribute to the success of our endeavour. You will first divide into groups according to what you think you can do best. Over there, by the balcony, those who can play an instrument will meet. Over there the sopranos, there the tenors, you get the idea."

It turned out that the deatheaters were lacking in the soprano department. The only female deatheaters were Bellatrix and Alecto and the former insisted she was an alto while Alecto was the only one who was able to play the harp.

"What can we do?" lamented the Dark Lord.

"Well," said Snape, who had proclaimed himself a triangle player, "you can either go for a men's choir – there are some very famous ones – or I can brew you a voice clearing potion."

"There is a potion to raise your voice?" the Dark Lord asked.

"Of course," Snape snorted. "For centuries witches who wanted to enchant a wizard with their song have done so with the help of potions. I can give anyone a bell-like soprano voice."

"Excellent!" cried the Dark Lord. "Are there potions for the other pitches, too?"

"I'm afraid not," admitted Snape. "Enchantment by song is a typically female method."

"Well, better than nothing," said the Dark Lord and then the auditions began.

The Dark Lord was so engrossed in the project that Lucius had to order the elves to bring him sandwiches he could eat without pausing the auditions for lunch. Snape, Lucius, Bellatrix and for some strange reason Pius Thicknesse were the Dark Lord's co-jurors.

When the deatheaters realised how important the project was for their master, everybody gave their all to be chosen as a part of the choir and band. There were even volunteers for drinking the voice clearing potion which luckily took all of a half hour to make. Those volunteers were mainly lower level deatheaters who hoped to rise in the Dark Lord's good graces if they acted for the sopranos he so desperately needed.

It was well after curfew when Snape finally was able to return Hogwarts. He was tired and he was hungry since all he had got after breakfast were two tiny cucumber sandwiches for lunch. A quick bite for dinner would be nice, the potions master decided and made his way to the kitchens. It was not meant to be though.

The Bloody Baron stopped him before he reached the painting behind which the realm of the Hogwarts house elves was hidden and informed him that he was awaited in the Great Hall.

With a sigh, Snape turned on his heel and made his way there.

It came as a complete surprise that the entire student body as well as the whole staff was waiting for him.

"We haven't been able to open the advent calendar!" Dumbeldore informed the tired wizard. "Miss Barnes has the coin."

A shy Ravenclaw third year whom Snape knew well from potions lessons presented the coin.

"Miss Barnes," he hinted a bow. "I'm sorry I made you wait so long, young lady." He removed the spell from the tree.

The girl blushed and picked her box from the tree.

The box extended as soon as it was put on the Ravenclaw table. In it were ice skates for every single inhabitant of Hogwarts.

"Splendid!" cried Dumbeldore. "Why don't we skip lessons tomorrow and skate on the lake?"

The students cheered and the cheering even increased when Dumbledore announced a figure skating contest for the afternoon.

Once the children had been sent off to bed, Snape had to report about his day with the Dark Lord to Dumbledore and then, finally, he was able to sneak off to the kitchens to get a bite.


	22. 22

22

On the 22nd of December, Snape was on duty for breakfast again. He entered the Great Hall mere moments after the house elves had started to lay out food on the tables. He was greeted with a chorus of "Good morning, Master Potions Master Wizard!" and a half dozen of house elves bowed to the floor when he walked past them.

The elves preferred to arrange the food by hand if the hall was empty. Dumbledore had told Snape that working without magic was much more satisfying for house elves.

"Good morning," Snape growled at the small creatures and sat at this usual spot at the head table.

A female elf in a strange toga-like dress made of several tea towels hurried to pour coffee for him and held out a plate of croissants. "Timpy just got these out of the oven," she piped. "They are all fresh and fluffy!"

Snape wondered whether house elves were able to read wizard's minds. He had just thought how nice a sweet breakfast would be for a change. Close to panic, he checked his occlumency shields but found them strong and undamaged.

"Yes, please," he said to the elf and took the plate out of her hands. "You don't happen to have blueberry jam?"

"Timpy will fetch some for master potions master immediately!" promised the elf and disappeared.

A couple of students wandered into the Great Hall and sat at the Hufflepuff table. The jam appeared beside Snape's plate out of thin air. A quick look around the hall showed that all the elves had returned to the kitchens when the first students arrived for breakfast.

Snape was just biting into his third croissant when Dumbledore arrived.

"Ah," the old wizard purred, "the house elves are in a good mood. Excellent!" He reached for a croissant. "I've been thinking about that choir Tom is putting together, Severus. We can't let him outdo us!"

"We have the nativity play," Snape reminded him.

"Yes, but I thought that's not very special for a Christmas party. I think we should hold auditions for a show on ice when we go skating with the students today."

"You do that," huffed Snape, "but I will have no part in it. I have seen our students skate last year. Most can barely stay on their feet."

"Are we wizards or what?" Dumbledore asked merrily. "The right charm here and there and we can have an excellent show!"

"No!" insisted Snape.

"No?" asked McGonagall as she took a croissant from the plate by Snape's place before she sat at the headmaster's other side. "Are you being destructive again, Severus?"

"Not at all," said Snape. "I only meant that I can't be in charge of a show on ice. There are better people for that kind of task. I was thinking of you."

"A show on ice?" McGonagall looked at the two wizards doubtfully. "That sounds like one of your ideas, Albus. I second Severus in this. No!"

"Well, if my most trusted disagree," sighed Dumbledore. "But it would have been glorious. The deatheater choir sings at the bank of the lake and our students dance on the ice. Glorious! We're missing a great chance here."

"No!" Snape and McGonagall chorused.

"I'm not forcing it," Dumbledore reassured them. "If you are not gifted with a sense of elegance and beauty, there is nothing I can do. The magic of the arts is not given to everybody who can wave a wand."

Snape snorted and McGonagall busied herself with putting marmalade on her croissant.

It was Neville Longbottom who came up to the head table a little later and presented his gold coin.

Snape lifted the spell and the boy went for his box.

"I just hope there is nothing in it with which he can cause a catastrophe," sighed Snape as he watched the boy carry his prize to the Gryffindor table.

"Severus!" scolded McGonagall, "Longbottom is a decent student. His only weakness is his fear of you! And you're doing nothing to reassure the poor boy."

"I'll never understand how we let someone like that boy near a wand," Snape sneered. "I've prevented him killing the whole class at least four times."

"Nonsense," nagged the head of Gryffindor.

"Really, you two," Dumbledore interfered. "Why can't we watch what the boy got peacefully?"

The two teachers huffed but held their tongues and watched.

"Oh, look!" cried Longbottom and reached into his box. He took out a scarf. It was black with stripes in red, green, blue and yellow. "It has the school crest!" He showed the crest to his housemates. "I think there are enough for everybody!"

Not only were there enough scarves for all students and teachers, but also woollen hats and gloves, all of them designed to combine all house colours and with the school crest instead of a house one.

"Wonderful!" cried Dumbledore when everybody had their new accessories. "Just what we needed for skating! As I said, all lessons are cancelled. Get on the ice. If you'd like we can have a figure skating contest!"

"We are not holding auditions for a show!" growled Snape.

"I agree with Severus!" huffed McGonagall under her breath.

"Stop me and my students if you can," Dumbledore smiled beatifically.

By dinner time he had a group of almost 50 students of various skating abilities who were eager to perform in a figure skating show at the Christmas party.

That evening Snape put in an extra shift brewing potions for the hospital wing.


	23. 23

23

The 23rd of December was not a very pleasant day for Severus Snape. He had waited for it with a feeling of merry anticipation but in hindsight he should have known that nothing would come of it.

The first feeling of dread reared its ugly head when Dumbledore had informed him of his plans for a figure skating show the previous evening. It was the reason why the potions master had spent quite some time brewing salves for bruises, potions to heal joints and balms to close wounds. Around midnight he had started on an extra batch of painkilling potion, and in the end he had gotten too little sleep by far.

In the morning, he had stomped up to the Great Hall, opened his calendar box unceremoniously and discovered – surprise, surprise – more figure skating costumes than was wise in the potions master's opinion.

Dumbledore was, of course, beside himself.

"That's wonderful!" cried the old sorcerer. "Come, children, and choose your costumes!"

The first difference of opinion came up seconds later, when Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter both wanted the same costume, tight green trousers and a jacket in a darker green in the style of an auror's uniform or a Durmstrang uniform minus the fur.

"For Merlin's sake, Potter," nagged the Malfoy heir, "it's Slytherin green! What do you want with it?"

"Ginny says it brings out my eyes!" protested the Golden Boy and pulled on a sleeve more vehemently.

"I can bring out your eyes for you!" snarled Draco, not ready to give way. "And the Weaselette has no taste anyway. She's together with you!"

"Aaaargh!" Harry Potter lunged for the blond and his girlfriend cheered him on. Draco let go of the costume and the redhead tried to secure it for her boyfriend. Unfortunately, Pansy Parkinson had the same idea.

"Children!" cried Dumbledore. "Children! There are more than one costumes in that colour and style!"

Really, there were six, three for boys and three for girls in that Slytherin green that suited Potter so well. Dumbledore handed them out to Potter, Malfoy, their girlfriends, as well as the youngest Weasley male and the Granger girl.

"Splendid!" the old wizard clapped his hands. "You will work wonderfully as a group! And your hair colours complement each other so wonderfully! Delicious!"

Snape allowed himself a cruel smile at the sight of the students' faces when they realised they had to perform together, but it was the only smile of the day.

It took the better part of an hour to find the right costume for each student that wanted to participate in the show.

Dumbledore offered Snape a Grinch costume but of course he declined. In very clear words that many would have considered impolite.

As Snape had expected, the headmaster cancelled all lessons again in order to give the students time to practice their routines.

McGonagall tried to talk Snape into going down to the lake and watching but Snape told her, in slightly less impolite words that he had better things to do than watch Potter and Malfoy at each other's throat all morning.

It was half true since the Dark Lord's call came only a couple of minutes after the majority of Hogwarts' population had taken off to the lake.

"Severus," cried the evil wizard, "we need your feedback. We've been practicing and personally I think we can't get better on short notice but I am, of course, biased. We need your opinion."

"I'd be honoured, my Lord," Snape hinted a bow. He just hoped the deatheater choir was good because the Dark Lord was not known for taking either lying or criticism well.

"Excellent!" The Dark Lord clapped his hands and the choir took their places. At a sign from their lord they started to sing.

They performed a medley of Christmas Carols, both muggle and wizard, for music was the one area where the Dark Lord didn't mind muggle influence. Music was, after all, magical in itself and couldn't even be tainted by non-magical people.

Snape was relieved to hear that they had, indeed, practiced and well. He was in for a couple of surprises. Who would have thought that Antonin Dolohov had such a great voice! He sang the solo parts in several songs.

Lucius Malfoy surprised with a fabulous range of voice. He started out in a deep voice like Dolohov and ended up with such high notes that only Bellatrix Lestrange and his own wife, Narcissa, could follow.

Bellatrix sang the female solo parts. Her voice was good but not as clear as Lucius'.

When the performance was over, Snape clapped enthusiastically. He suggested minor changes here and there to avoid giving the impression of being dishonest in his feedback but nothing big. He also offered to brew a potion for Bellatrix to give her a clearer voice.

The Dark Lord thanked him for the offer and sent him off to brew. Bellatrix was offended but since she was more harmless as an enemy than the Dark Lord, Snape could not have cared less.

Once the potions was brewed and administered, the choir sang again. Bellatrix had to admit that the potion didn't change her voice but made singing easier for her.

Snape was allowed to return to Hogwarts shortly after dinner time. At the castle he found utter chaos. There were, as he had known there would be, lots of hurt students. Luckily their injuries were only minor and he had all potions at hand that were needed.

Nevertheless it was nearly midnight again when the potions master was able to go to bed.


	24. 24

24

Snape woke with a feeling of doom. This could not go well. The Dark Lord was coming to the Hogwarts Christmas Party because the castle itself (herself? himself?) had invited him. The potions master wondered what the edifice had been thinking.

Feeling that he needed all his strength that day, Snape called for a house elf and had it deliver a mug of coffee to his living room. He downed it in record time before he swept up to the Great Hall.

It seemed, the other teachers had thought along the same lines. Everybody was already in their seat and alert. Every teacher, including a beatifically smiling Dumbledore, had their wand beside their plate.

"Good morning," Snape growled as he sat between McGonagall and Flitwick.

"Good morning, Severus," replied the deputy headmistress. "You are late."

"I am by no means late!" the potions master defended himself and reached for the scrambled eggs.

"How can you even think of eating in this situation!" cried Flitwick.

"Well," Snape pointed out, "it is breakfast time and it's customary to eat at breakfast. The elves provided us with a delightful choice of dishes, it would be a crime not to eat."

"But the Dark Lord is coming!" piped Flitwick.

"He has celebrated Christmas with us those last few years and it was always peaceful," Snape said with all the confidence he could muster. "He has invested a lot of time in choir practice and he won't want to make the effort obsolete. It's safe to assume we'll be on the safe side as long as the deatheaters haven't sung. Now eat, or you'll faint when you're most needed. The Dark Lord won't come here hungry. I'm sure he's having toast and kipper while we speak."

"I had no idea Tom likes kipper," Dumbledore said from McGonagall's other side. "I'll let the elves know to prepare some nice dish with kipper."

"How do you know about his breakfast habits?" the witch asked suspiciously.

Snape sighed dramatically. "He does torture his followers from time to time," he reminded his colleagues, "but he prefers spell over food withdrawal. When a meeting runs too long, he has breakfast served." He grinned. "Lucius hates it when his elves are ordered around in the small hours by anybody but him."

"And he eats kipper for breakfast," Dumbledore stayed on topic.

"More often than not. Sometimes he prefers a sweet breakfast with pancakes and cream cheese and fruit."

"Pancakes, cream cheese and fruit?" McGonagall made a face.

Snape shrugged. "He says he tried it on his journeys to the continent. Austria, Czechia, Hungary. Somewhere in that area."

Dumbledore summoned a house elf and Snape had to give the small creature all the Dark Lord's food preferences he knew about.

Nobody came forward to claim the advent calendar box on the tree. Snape was not surprised. He had no idea how the castle had done it but he didn't doubt that the gold coin bearing the number 24 had somehow ended up in a deatheater's hand.

The Dark Lord and his followers arrived shortly before lunch time.

"Dumbledore! Albus!" the Dark Lord greeted the headmaster jovially. "Thank you for the invitation to your party! We have been looking forward to this day ever since your letter arrived. The decoration looks splendid! Your doing?"

"It is Filius we have to thank for the cheerful appearance of the Hall," the headmaster replied in an equally merry way. "Welcome, Tom, welcome! Your attendance of the annual Christmas party has become a dear tradition over those past few years! Come in, everybody! Have seats!"

The house and head tables had been replaced by a good dozen of big round tables. Not a single one was empty for the castle had provided place cards and every table held a mix of students of all houses, a teacher and a couple of deatheaters; and the students were already seated.

The deatheaters spread around the room to go looking for their assigned seats.

The Dark Lord slipped into his seat beside Septima Vector and started a conversation immediately. "And where have you been hiding, charming young lady?" he gave the witch his best smile and she blushed. The students at their table looked uncomfortable but relaxed when their teacher informed the Dark Lord that she hadn't been hiding, it was he who hadn't been looking for her hard enough and the evil wizard laughed merrily.

Harry Potter looked not thrilled at all to have lunch with Bellatrix Lestrange but politely asked her questions after his well-being when she asked.

Luna Lovegood started a discussion about magical creatures with Wormtail and Antonin Dolohov, Hermione Granger listened intently as Lucius Malfoy lectured their table about old wizarding traditions, and Ron Weasley seemed to have lost his appetite when the Carrow twins spoke about combat training.

Draco Malfoy was seated at a table with Rabastan Lestrange who entertained the table with awkward stories from the blond's early childhood. The Slytherin looked murderous when Lestrange told the assembled students about how Draco had spent two days looking for his stuffed dragon Mr. Sparks when he was 3 years old. There were first year Hufflepuffs present for crying out loud!

When everybody was seated, Dumbledore tapped his plate with his wand but nothing happened. Instead the star on top of the calendar tree lit up.

"What is the meaning of this?" asked the Dark Lord.

"It means the castle wants us to open the calendar window first," Snape explained. "Somebody must have a gold coin with the number 24 on it."

"I was wondering what it is!" cried the Dark Lord. He showed the coin in question.

Snape lifted the spell.

"Well, go ahead," cried Dumbledore. "Open your box."

The Dark Lord didn't bother to get up. He summoned the box from the tree and opened it.

"Hahaaaaaa!" he cried as he reached into the box deeper than should have been possible. "A hat!" He fished out a green elf hat and put it on immediately. "And another!" He threw Dumbledore a colourful sombrero.

There were, of course, hats for everybody in that box.

Lucius ended up with a fez, the Weasley twins got turbans, Pansy Parkinson happily sported a tiara, Hermione Granger got a woollen hat, Harry Potter a top hat, Draco Malfoy a bowler hat, McGonagall ended up with a baseball cap, and so on. Justin Finch-Fletchley of Hufflepuff even got a helmet.

Once every party guest had their head gear, the food appeared on the plates. It was delicious.

After the meal, Dumbledore lead the guests and residents outside and the students performed their skating show. Snape and Pomfrey got plenty to do, but the Dark Lord and his followers overlooked all mistakes and injuries graciously.

After the skating, cocoa and biscuits were served in the Great Hall.

Then followed the concert of the deatheater choir. The students and teachers clapped enthusiastically.

Later there was more food, a dance and even a round of presents. Dumbledore had prepared snow globes for everybody and the Dark Lord handed out charmed Christmas ornaments that glittered in various colours depending on the mood people nearby were in.

All in all it was a good day. Snape found that he had been nervous for nothing, for the administering of potions and applying of healing charms by the lake had been less taxing than a normal workday. He had gotten good food, plenty of it, a new pirate's hat, a snow globe and a small glass star that was currently blinking gold and silver.

It was, indeed, a Merry Christmas!

Merry belated Christmas to all my readers! Again, I apologize for the delay. Real life caught up with me.


End file.
